topics covered in this page sell form fields auction only sell form fields store item only sell form fields why can I not see the auction or store item fields in my sell form displaying default tracking fields in the sell form displaying optional payment address fields in the sell form how the category and region ids affects search and browse results stepped pricing examples scheduled relist examples store item quantity examples

related links what account requirements are needed to sell an item free2auction fees disallowed listings and penalties selling fixed priced product through your store options and preferences multiple quantity auctions bulk loader help ebay loader help enter bulk loader auction data enter bulk loader storeitem data

the free2auction customer service team are always happy to answer your questions or give advice regarding selling your items

The sell form is where you enter all the information for a new listing. After entering your item details you will have the opportunity to review your listing as other users will see it before submitting.

The Bulk Loader allows numerous auctions or storeitems to be listed at one time by uploading or copying in a text file prepared in the correct format. more info
The ebay Loader allows you to easily transfer a selection or all your open or ended ebay auctions to free2auction. learn about the ebay loader


Sell form fields
The sell form is made up of many elements, fields denoted with a (*) are required. You can create defaults for many of the below fields in your options page under default sell data.

Category *: Places your listing in an appropriate category. how the category id affects search and browse results
2nd category: Increase the chances of somebody finding your item by listing it in a second category. Fee is $ 0.20 plus double any additional sell feature fees. fees
Item title *: The short description of your title that users will see when browsing and searching. Make it specific and include important information that will catch peoples attention.
Description *: This is the larger body of information that users will see after selecting to view more detailed information about our item. It must include all relevant information describing your item. The description can be plain text or html format. disallowed listings and penalties
Sellers Guarantee: You may offer your buyers extra protection with by allocating part of your free2auction account balance as a guarantee. sellers guarantee help
Item sold from country *: The country you are selling the item from.
Item sold from location *: Allows you to enter a custom description of where your item is located.
Region: Increase the success of your listing by choosing the specific region you are located in. how the region id affects search and browse results
Pictures: The pictures you add here are displayed at the beginning of your items description and there are two hosting choices, you can select own web hosting and enter the url address (eg: http://url-link.com/mypicture.jpg) of a picture hosted at another site, or free2auction can host your picture on our servers. The first picture is free and you can place additional pictures at $ 0.15 each. Pictures must be .jpg or .gif format and cannot exceed 100kb, only jpeg files will produce thumbnails.
Thumbnails: Your action can have a thumbnail which is seen when people search and browse items. This thumbnail is generated from any jpeg images and can be chosen within the picture manager.
Bold: Make your listing stand out when users browse or search by making the title bold face for the fee of $ 0.15 .
Featured: By selecting the featured option your listing will appear before all the non-featured item listings in the preferential featured section. Fee $ 1.00 plus double end price fee on successful sales. see examples
free2auction icon: Add a small preset free2auction icon next to your item title to catch a buyers eye for $ 0.20 . see examples
Upload your icon: Want to add something unique to your listing? Add a custom icon next to your item title for the fee of $ 0.40 . Your custom icon must be .gif format and dimensions 16x16 pixels, file size no larger than 3k.
Page view counter: A free counter that appears at the end of your item description displaying how many times your item has been viewed. You can choose from a preset list of counter designs including a counter that only you, the seller, can view. See examples
Minimum rating: You can set the buyers minimum rating. If a member with a rating lower than this setting attempts to bid on the auction or purchase the store item they will not be permitted.
Payment methods you will accept: Check the boxes for the different payment methods you will accept, bidders use these fields to confirm they have the ability to make payment to you and can also perform advanced search for specific payment methods. Any additional payment requirements can be added in the additional payment details section.
Optional payment address fields: If you select to use the optional payment address, the contact details you enter here will be mailed to any winners. If you select this option, your free2auction account contact details will not be sent to a winner, even if you have chosen on your options page to send them.
Escrow services: Escrow is a 3rd party service offered by an impartial company to reduce the risks involved in transactions such as online purchases. The escrow company will hold money from the buyer until they confirm the goods are received, then they will pass the funds on to the seller or assist in any disputes that arise. You can select that you will not accept escrow services, that you will accept the services of an escrow company if the buyer pays the associated fees, or that you will accept the services of an escrow company and pay the associated fees. free2auction is not affiliated with any escrow service.
Additional payment details: You may add any important information regarding payment in this field.
Where will you ship this item to: Select where you are prepared to ship your item to. Any special delivery details must be written into your description.
Shipping costs: Choose if shipping charges are included in your listing price (seller pays for shipping), or the buyer must pay for the shipping and handling. If you choose 'buyer pays the following shipping and handling charges' complete the shipping charge and insurance fields as required. By leaving any of these fields blank you are confirming that the buyer does not have to pay any charge for that selection. Additional shipping charges are to be in the same currency as the listing price.
Shipping charge: This is the total charge the buyer will have to pay for all shipping and handling (per item for multiple quantity purchases). The shipping charge may be stepped. stepped pricing examples
Insurance per item: The price for shipping insurance per item. The seller may have insurance listed as not available, required, optional, or included in the shipping price.
Optional tracking offer: If you select any options for the shipping and tracking offer, the offer will automatically be generated at the successful end of auction or store purchase. In your options page you can add or remove the optional tracking offer from your sell page.


Auction only fields
Duration *: You can choose to list your item for a duration between 1-15 days, the default auction duration is 7 days but there is no charge associated with adjusting the duration.
Quantity *: By increasing the number of items you have for sale above 1 you are creating a multiple quantity auction, which has specific criteria and are handled in a different way to a standard single quantity auction. All items must be identical. learn about multiple quantity auctions
Starting price *: This is the minimum bid that can initially be made on your auction.
Currency *: You may list your auction in any currency, the default is USD, any other currency will be noted next prices so prospective bidders know that this is the currency you will be expecting payment in. Each currency has its own bid increment which will effect how proxy bids are calculated learn about currencies and your account currency increments
Reserve price: If the highest bid does not reach the reserve price you set then the auction will close without a winner. The reserve price can not be seen by other users, but when viewing the item listing users can see whether a reserve price has not yet been met. If you do not list a reserve price you are obliged to complete the transaction at the closing price.
Buy now price: Listing a value here will allow users to make a bid at this value and close your auction early, prior bidders will be notified that the auction ended early due to a buy now bid. Multiple quantity auctions can not have a buy now price.
Automatically extend: Adjust this setting to set if you wish to have the auctions end time automatically extend by 5 minutes if a bid is placed in the closing minutes as per your setting.
Schedule: You may schedule auctions to be listed at a later date. The auction data will be stored until the date and time you specify, and then the listing will become active automatically. All selling and account requirements will be calculated at the time of listing, and if these requirements are not met the auction will not be listed. You can manage scheduled auctions from the scheduled auctions table. Schedule times and dates are GMT -04:00 (Atlantic time).
Automatically relist: By turning this feature on your auction will automatically be relisted if it does not have any successful winners. There is no limit to how many times an auction can be relisted, so if your auction repeatedly does not sell it will continue to be relisted until it sells, or you amend the item and remove the auto relist option.
Scheduled relists dates: You can automatically generate scheduled auctions identical the current listing by entering date/time values here. After being submitted, these relists may be managed from your scheduled auctions table. You can edit your default sell data in your options page so that the scheduled relist dates are automatically generated for new listings. scheduled relist examples


Store item only fields
Price *: This is the price buyers must pay per unit. Store item prices may be stepped. stepped pricing examples
Currency *: As above for auction listings.
Maximum quantity *: The maximum units one buyer can purchase at one time.
Available quantity *: This is the amount of units you have available, it decreases every time a purchase is made by the quantity purchased, if it reduces below the maximum quantity then it will become the new maximum amount a buyer can purchase. If the available quantity reaches zero the store item is automatically closed. You can increase/decrease this value by amending your store item. store item quantity examples


Why can I not see the auction or store item fields in my sell form
In your options page there is an option to show on your sell form only auction details, only store item details, or show auction and store item details.
If you select to show both auction and store item details, then in your sell form you will have to select which type of listing you are making.
When you first signup with free2auction your account is not configured with an active store, so by default only auction details are shown on the sell form. If you activate your store from your options page the setting will automatically change to show auction and store item details, you may then alter this setting from your options page.


Displaying default tracking fields in the sell form
By completing the default tracking and selling section of the sell form, if your listing successfully sells the default offer will be entered to help speed up the transaction and save the seller from having to manually enter an offer. If you never use this feature you may removing this section from the sell form, do so by turning off 'display shipping and tracking offer in sell form' in your options page.


Displaying optional payment address fields in the sell form
If you never use the optional payment address in the sell form you may remove these fields, do so by turning off 'display optional payment address in sell form' in your options page.


How the category and region ids affects search and browse results
The category and region id fields are effective ways to improve your listings visibility, you can choose to list at any level of the category or region trees, by choosing a lower branch you have a higher chance of being found than listings at a higher level on the tree. free2auction uses category and region code numbers. You can use the category selector to find the appropriate category code you are looking for, or export the entire category listing. You can use the region selector to find the appropriate region code you are looking for, or export the entire region listing. examples


Stepped pricing examples
Store item price and shipping charge values may be stepped, meaning they may have a range of prices that apply according to the quantity purchased. To include a stepped pricing use the format [price]:[quantity],[price]:[quantity], etc.
Quantities must be in ascending order. The first price will be used in search and order results for store item prices.
For example if you want a stepped range of 1-10pcs priced at $25, 11-50pcs priced at $22.50, and 51pcs or more priced at $19.99 you would enter "25:10,22.5:50,19.99:999" (note the last 999 is used to account for any quantity greater than 50).
If you want a stepped price of 1-10pcs charged at $2 per item, 11+pcs charged at $1.50 per item, you would enter "2:10,1.5:999".


Scheduled relist examples
The format for entering scheduled relist dates is hhddmmyyyy where hh is 24-hour format, 2 digits with leading zeros (1:00am = "01", midday = "12", 9:00pm = "21", midnight = "00"), dd is day of the month, 2 digits with leading zero (1st = "01", 9th = "09", 28th = "28"), mm is month, 2 digits with leading zero (January = "01", December = "12"), and yyyy is year, 4digits (eg "2003", "2004"). Each scheduled relist date is separated by a ";" character.
Example "1310022003;1821022003" will relist your item at 1pm on the 10th February 2003 and 6pm on the 21st February 2003. Up to 20 relist dates may be entered, scheduled times cannot exceed 3 months from the present date.


Store item quantity examples
You may effectively manage the quantity you have available for store items. The maximum quantity specifies the maximum quantity you wish to sell to one buyer at one time, this value does not change when an item is purchased. The available quantity allows you to enter the total quantity you have available, each time a purchase is made this value decreases by the amount purchased. If this value is higher than the maximum quantity then the maximum quantity will be shown on the item description as the maximum quantity a buyer can purchase at one time, if the available quantity is lower than the maximum quantity value then the available quantity will be shown as the maximum quantity a buyer can purchase.
If you list an item with a maximum quantity of 25, and an available quantity of 35, when a buyer views this item they will see 25 as the maximum amount they can purchase. If a buyer purchases 25pcs, the available quantity will reduce to 10, and when another buyer views this item they will see 10 as the maximum amount they may purchase, if they purchase 10pcs the available quantity will go down to 0 and the store item will be automatically closed. You may open the store item by first amending to and increasing the available quantity, and then selecting opening the item from your closed store items table.