BiddingPond.com discussion

[FreeMoney]

Hello Everyone,
I have set up an auction site that uses BTC as the currency. You can access it at http://www.biddingpond.com .  Right now image gallery uploads are broken and being worked on ( What is working: you can include image links/tags in the item description). Please feel free to auction your items. Registration requires only a valid e-mail address.

Stop by and lets trade some items :-D!

I bid 1.00BTC on the 50 dinar note. It says the current bid is still 0.00. It also says my bid is 0.00. When I try to rebid 1.00 it says " You are the winning bidder and cannot place a bid lower than your previous maximum bid."

I don't know if this seller made a mistake, or not. But it seems possible that he's going to send me this note for 1BTC and not charge shipping to Hawaii. I don't know if he meant that, is it possibly a site error?

[1714944455]

1714944455

[1714944455]

1714944455

[1714944455]

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[semyazza]

This thread is for discussions about BiddingPond.com. Please post any concerns, questions, comments or suggestions here and I will answer them as quickly as possible.

I have set up an auction site that uses BTC as the currency. You can access it at http://www.biddingpond.com.  Please feel free to auction your items. Registration requires only a valid e-mail address.

[semyazza]

Hello Everyone,
I have set up an auction site that uses BTC as the currency. You can access it at http://www.biddingpond.com .  Right now image gallery uploads are broken and being worked on ( What is working: you can include image links/tags in the item description). Please feel free to auction your items. Registration requires only a valid e-mail address.

Stop by and lets trade some items :-D!

I bid 1.00BTC on the 50 dinar note. It says the current bid is still 0.00. It also says my bid is 0.00. When I try to rebid 1.00 it says " You are the winning bidder and cannot place a bid lower than your previous maximum bid."

I don't know if this seller made a mistake, or not. But it seems possible that he's going to send me this note for 1BTC and not charge shipping to Hawaii. I don't know if he meant that, is it possibly a site error?

Hello,
It does not seem like it is an error as he has free shipping listed in the item Title. Sellers are free to list the items at whatever price they want. There is also a rating system on the site so we can eventually trust sellers with good ratings and not trust those with bad. I'm also working on an escrow module for the site so that larger transactions can be traded safely. I want to automate the process but might set up a manual process for the time being. I also just started a topic BiddingPond.com Discussion in the market place so we don't fill this thread up with questions about the site. The link is http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=574.0.

[FreeMoney]

I bid 1.00BTC on the 50 dinar note. It says the current bid is still 0.00. It also says my bid is 0.00. When I try to rebid 1.00 it says " You are the winning bidder and cannot place a bid lower than your previous maximum bid."

[semyazza]

Issue fixed. I'm watching all current/new auctions closely.

[Vasili Sviridov]

"It\'s better in the pond"?

It's also better to escape characters properly...

[kiba]

How do you plan to make money?

[semyazza]

I plan to make money by either banner advertisements and/or by charging a listing fee for the extra features.

Currently it's free to list all items.

Extras cost:
Home Page Featured Fee: 5.00 BTC   
Bold Item Fee: 2.00 BTC   
Highlighted Item Fee: 1.00 BTC   
Reserve Price Fee: 5.00 BTC
Images Upload Fee: 1.00 BTC   (Currently being worked on. Can post pictures of images hosted offsite for free.)
Buy Now Fee: 2 BTC

Every new account receives a 5 BTC credit. Each account can have a balance of up to -25.00 BTC before requiring payment on the site. Prices will adjust as Bitcoin deflation increases. Listing items as far as I can see into the future will be free and should stay that way as long as the site pays for itself.  

The bitcoin address to send payment to is:
1DQM9psE9x1V962Qt9rTEhXgxHpMAFcM8w

I will have all this posted on the site before the week ends. I'm also working on a different site design and hope to replace that with its current rendition.

I'm looking to even do a logo contest and offer BTC as prizes. Anyone have a reasonable idea on how many BTC I should offer as a prize? I was thinking 500 for first?

[dwdollar]

I decided to auction off an ad for Bitcoin Market.

[Babylon]

Hello Everyone,
I have set up an auction site that uses BTC as the currency. You can access it at http://www.biddingpond.com .  Right now image gallery uploads are broken and being worked on ( What is working: you can include image links/tags in the item description). Please feel free to auction your items. Registration requires only a valid e-mail address.

Stop by and lets trade some items :-D!

I bid 1.00BTC on the 50 dinar note. It says the current bid is still 0.00. It also says my bid is 0.00. When I try to rebid 1.00 it says " You are the winning bidder and cannot place a bid lower than your previous maximum bid."

I don't know if this seller made a mistake, or not. But it seems possible that he's going to send me this note for 1BTC and not charge shipping to Hawaii. I don't know if he meant that, is it possibly a site error?

Hello,
It does not seem like it is an error as he has free shipping listed in the item Title. Sellers are free to list the items at whatever price they want. There is also a rating system on the site so we can eventually trust sellers with good ratings and not trust those with bad. I'm also working on an escrow module for the site so that larger transactions can be traded safely. I want to automate the process but might set up a manual process for the time being. I also just started a topic BiddingPond.com Discussion in the market place so we don't fill this thread up with questions about the site. The link is http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=574.0.

50 dinar is worth about 4 cents, so less than a bitcoin currently.  Admittedly the shipping is going to be more than that.

[semyazza]

I decided to auction off an ad for Bitcoin Market.

Thank You for your support!

[kiba]

Is it possible to link shipping option to the exchange rate of bitcoins?

[semyazza]

Yes,
I first want to get my escrow service running so people feel safer trading on biddingpond.com with pricier items. Thank you for the idea! I'll add it to my list!

[sirius]

If you want to upgrade the BiddingPond.com logo, you can give http://cooltext.com/ a try.

[ArrowJ]

I had an idea for the logo...not that the frog is bad, but as a rule I wouldn't include your competitions logo in your own...or a parody of it

--
EDIT: added a couple more options...there are lots of them...you get the idea

[kwukduck]

I tried to work with biddingpond but it doesn't seem to process biddings or losing, oudbidding or wins correctly...

placed a 2,00BTC bet, it told me i was the highest bidder for 0,99BTC,  then the auction expired and i didn't get any notification wheter i won, or was outbid.

[fresno]

I wouldn't include your competitions logo in your own...or a parody of it

But we sure need SOMEPLACE to do it! It would be nice to have a site to publicly throw crap at PayPal as well.

[semyazza]

I tried to work with biddingpond but it doesn't seem to process biddings or losing, oudbidding or wins correctly...

placed a 2,00BTC bet, it told me i was the highest bidder for 0,99BTC,  then the auction expired and i didn't get any notification wheter i won, or was outbid.

Hello,
Outbid notices are working. Please check your spam folder. If you do not meet the reserve price of the auction you will not receive any notifications besides the warning on the page. Please send me an e-mail with the item you are talking about and I will investigate if there is indeed an error and/or if more notifications need to be added.  I should have a help section and FAQ up on the page by this weekend. I'm working on a payment gateway for bitcoins to streamline the process a bit. I have a new site design that I hope to have completed by the end of the month which will make things look cleaner and more Web 2.0ish.

Thanks for letting me know your concerns. Feel free to contact me by e-mail with any other concerns questions or comments and I will keep the forum updated.

-Justin
biddingpond@semyazza.com

[kiba]

It was not possible to use my short nick kiba. It wants 6 letters username. Why is that?

[semyazza]

It was not possible to use my short nick kiba. It wants 6 letters username. Why is that?

Short usernames and passwords allow a site to easily become a victim of brute force attacks against the server. Although other countermeasures have also been implemented it was determined the increased liability of short usernames was not worth the risk.

[kiba]

What are you currently working on for biddingpond.com?

[semyazza]

Priority 0-9: 9 being the highest:

New site design (more web 2.0ish) 1
Escrow System 7
Payment Gateway for Bitcoins (may spinoff into another site completely ala paypal and ebay) 9
FAQ Section 8
BCSpec Draft 6
 - integrate feedback system 5
 - Pull data from bitcoinmarket.com for current USD value 6
 - Other currency conversions 3
More detailed instructions and increased usability (constantly working on it) 7

Formalize a TODO list 7
"Contact Us" Form 7

[kiba]

I saw that all the old auctions are gone. Maybe it would be better behaviors to keep old listing? The idea is that people get to see that the site actually get used.

[jgarzik]

I think eBay stores each auction's results for 90 days.

[FreeMoney]

Definitely need to keep old auctions available to view. To show site activity is most important now, but it's also good for people to see what prices things are going for and what people are interested in.

[semyazza]

Old auctions should be available to view if the link is bookmarked it can still be accessed by its URL. Users can view their closed auctions(buyers and sellers) conveniently at this page:
http://www.biddingpond.com/closed_auctions.php .

To make it more convenient and to allow old auctions to be easily accessed by everyone how would you suggest listing them? Category named "Closed listings" and/or some other alternative?

[FreeMoney]

"Closed listings" or "Completed Auctions" link below the "All listings" should be good. Maybe you'd need to change "All listings" to "All current listings" or something if you did that, though, to emphasize that everything in the "All listings" is still winnable.

[semyazza]

** Feature Update **

Image gallery hosting has been fully implemented and is now working. You no longer need to use an outside host to post images(although you still can).

[kiba]

Is it possible to cancel bids? I once accidental put in 99 bitcoins when  I meant .99 bitcoins. I still got outbidded though.

[semyazza]

Is it possible to cancel bids? I once accidental put in 99 bitcoins when  I meant .99 bitcoins. I still got outbidded though.

Currently it is not possible. If that does happen again though please contact me and I will modify the amount for you. This feature will be added to my to do list.

[telyni]

Why is the fee amount 7 BTC before any options have been chosen? Is it assumed that at least one picture will be uploaded? Can this option be turned off?

[semyazza]

While setting the picture price to 0BTC I edited another field. Issue resolved. Picture hosting will be free for the foreseeable future.

[telyni]

Great, thank you. I'll be posting something soon.

[kiba]

So is when the old auctions list going to be available?

[semyazza]

So is when the old auctions list going to be available?

Current Status:
Payment Gateway: 80% Complete
FAQ Section: 30% Complete
Display old Auctions List: 20% complete

Priority 0-9: 9 being the highest:

New site design (more web 2.0ish) 1
Escrow System 7
Payment Gateway for Bitcoins (may spinoff into another site completely ala paypal and ebay) 9
FAQ Section 8
BCSpec Draft 6
 - integrate feedback system 5
 - Pull data from bitcoinmarket.com for current USD value 6
 - Other currency conversions 3
More detailed instructions and increased usability (constantly working on it) 7
Display Old Auctions List in Categories Menu 8

Formalize a TODO list 7
"Contact Us" Form 7

[semyazza]

Terms and conditions have been updated for more clarity:

 Website Usage Terms & Conditions
 
Welcome to our website. If you continue to browse and use this website you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms and conditions of use, which together with our privacy policy govern BiddingPond.com’s relationship with you in relation to this website.
The term ‘BiddingPond.com’ or ‘us’ or ‘we’ refers to the owner of the website whose registered office is 600 Pease Lane West Islip, NY 11795. The term ‘you’ refers to the user or viewer of our website.
The use of this website is subject to the following terms of use:
 The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice.
Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, for which we shall not be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that any products, services or information available through this website meet your specific requirements.
This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these terms and conditions.
All trademarks reproduced in this website, which are not the property of, or licensed to the operator, are acknowledged on the website.
Unauthorised use of this website may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offence.
From time to time this website may also include links to other websites. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. They do not signify that we endorse the website(s). We have no responsibility for the content of the linked website(s).
You may not create a link to this website from another website with the intent to bypass the "Main Page" or other documents without BiddingPond.com’s prior written consent. For purposes of this paragraph "Main Page" refers to any page and/or document that is intended to be viewed as a whole.*
Your use of this website and any dispute arising out of such use of the website is subject to the laws of the United States, State of New York.
 
 
*Yes, full permission is given to link to individual auctions for legitimate purposes. I am a fond believer of if the users do the right thing, there is nothing to worry about. The terms of service are not meant to impede legitimate fair use of links and information on this site. These terms of use are here to notify illegitimate users that bandwidth theft(image hot linking) and other nefarious access is not allowed.
 

[nelisky]

You know what would really help me as a buyer? If I could filter out all the 'Ships from USA, no international' auctions. I see stuff I like at a price I'd pay, only to find seller will not send to me.

Is that possible? Just Europe / USA / Everywhere else would be good enough (for me).

[telyni]

I wonder what the ratio is of sold auctions to unsold. Nothing I've put up has gotten any interest yet.

[semyazza]

You know what would really help me as a buyer? If I could filter out all the 'Ships from USA, no international' auctions. I see stuff I like at a price I'd pay, only to find seller will not send to me.

Is that possible? Just Europe / USA / Everywhere else would be good enough (for me).

I will add that to the TODO list.

[semyazza]

I wonder what the ratio is of sold auctions to unsold. Nothing I've put up has gotten any interest yet.

Live Auctions   26   
Closed Auctions   42

I'm working on automating the rest of the stats and putting up an info page for those who are interested.

[semyazza]

To everyone regarding account payments:
Once you get a balance of -500BTC the account will be put on hold from further listings until payment is received. A manual system for payment is currently sending payment to:

127U2BTVQ23td2Fh5dnmdAo6HTXQ3qbNcP

and PMing me With the amount you sent and the current block number at time of payment. The automated payment system for auctions as well as site balances will be done this week.  You will be able to pay each other as well as a simple escrow service (verification of delivery).

[jgarzik]

I wonder what the ratio is of sold auctions to unsold. Nothing I've put up has gotten any interest yet.

Live Auctions   26   
Closed Auctions   42

I'm working on automating the rest of the stats and putting up an info page for those who are interested.

Please consider making the info available in manner easy for other computers to parse (JSON, XML, CSV, ...)

[Pubulis01]

I've been trying to use this site, but was stopped when I bid 30 BTC for an auction.  I paid the seller directly, but have been unable to bid or list new auctions since, because the site thinks I owe it money.

The thing is that I was able to create a new account, without any issues, and continuing to sell and buy.

Can you trust a site that won't allow private transactions?  I paid the buyer, who offered me feedback, and yet the site still wants me to pay through some magically unavailable gateway.

I would love to send the admins my comments, but they have no way to contact them on the website...  No e-mails, no phones, no, well, anything.

The moment someone else introduces a marketplace with transparency, and real-world contacts, is the moment I say goodbye to BiddingPond

[semyazza]

I've been trying to use this site, but was stopped when I bid 30 BTC for an auction.  I paid the seller directly, but have been unable to bid or list new auctions since, because the site thinks I owe it money.

The thing is that I was able to create a new account, without any issues, and continuing to sell and buy.

Can you trust a site that won't allow private transactions?  I paid the buyer, who offered me feedback, and yet the site still wants me to pay through some magically unavailable gateway.

I would love to send the admins my comments, but they have no way to contact them on the website...  No e-mails, no phones, no, well, anything.

The moment someone else introduces a marketplace with transparency, and real-world contacts, is the moment I say goodbye to BiddingPond

The site has a safety mechanism that keeps people from having large balances and not paying for items. Currently that limit was lifted from 30BTC(low) to 500BTC(about $90USD).  Private transactions ARE allowed and you do not have to use the payment gateway(which is under construction and should be finished this week).

If your account is still blocked and you paid the seller directly without using the payment gateway you should ask the seller of the item to mark your transaction as paid.  If the seller refuses, leave negative feedback and contact me and I will resolve the issue between both the seller and buyer.   This can be done by going to the Control Panel, Click on the selling tab, Click on Winner Details, and manually setting payment to paid.

Regarding your comments, you did in fact contact me via Private message waited less than 12 hours and opened another account (just so you know this is not allowed but, I did not explicitly state this and the terms of service will be updated). If you would like your account merged please let me know via PM what account name you wish to keep. All your concerns were addressed within a 12 hour period, a reply to your personal message was dispatched, and this forum was updated with the changed information.  I do not see a problem.  If for some reason you would like situations handled another way please feel free to PM me and I will try to implement your suggestion.  Yes, the site without the payment gateway causes it not to be as automated as one would expect it to be. I do encourage feedback and am working on all suggestions that are given to me.

I thank you for your continued use of the site and like I stated earlier the payment gateway should be done this week.  You will notice that the process will be highly stream lined after it is fully implemented.

[snrlx]

I really appreciate the work you are doing on BiddingPond, but I think that the design should be a more major consideration. The way that it looks makes me think more than twice about using the site. Even revamping the logo would make the site look more approachable. I know that you are doing a lot of things at the moment, but you might want to work on making a more neat website design for the future.

[FreeMoney]

I really appreciate the work you are doing on BiddingPond, but I think that the design should be a more major consideration. The way that it looks makes me think more than twice about using the site. Even revamping the logo would make the site look more approachable. I know that you are doing a lot of things at the moment, but you might want to work on making a more neat website design for the future.

Agreed. I really appreciate all the work though.

One thing that might help is to make empty categories invisible to buyers. When you are selling you can put it wherever you want, maybe even make a new category. It just make it look really empty as it is now.

[TheColdOne]

I just wanted to report a glitch on Biddingpond.com recently when I bid on an auction, another user and myself both won the same listing, we both received winning bid notifications. Luckily the seller had two of the items that he was willing to sell. If the seller wouldn't have been able to accommodate both of us there could have been a problem.

I very much hope that biddingpond succeeds so I thought I would post this glitch so that you could fix the problem before it happens again.

[semyazza]

I just wanted to report a glitch on Biddingpond.com recently when I bid on an auction, another user and myself both won the same listing, we both received winning bid notifications. Luckily the seller had two of the items that he was willing to sell. If the seller wouldn't have been able to accommodate both of us there could have been a problem.

I very much hope that biddingpond succeeds so I thought I would post this glitch so that you could fix the problem before it happens again.

Thank you for reporting the problem. I had been working with the seller to determine the cause. I notified him of who the real winner was. He also very kindly accommodated both buyers on his own. The reason both people received winning mail notifications was they both bid at "the same time".  This error has been corrected and e-mail notifications will get sent out based upon a more accurate time representation.  I will also be crediting the people who were affected by this with 50BTC credits for their trouble. These credits can be used on biddingpond.com or cashed out.  I am on vacation right now and will have your accounts credited by Wednesday.

[semyazza]

I really appreciate the work you are doing on BiddingPond, but I think that the design should be a more major consideration. The way that it looks makes me think more than twice about using the site. Even revamping the logo would make the site look more approachable. I know that you are doing a lot of things at the moment, but you might want to work on making a more neat website design for the future.

Thanks for supporting the site. A new site design is on my todo list.  Right now my main concern is on usability and making life easier and safer(safer than other online auction sites) to buy/sell.  Once that is completed I already have a design that I think will work nicely(to be determined by the users).

[semyazza]

I really appreciate the work you are doing on BiddingPond, but I think that the design should be a more major consideration. The way that it looks makes me think more than twice about using the site. Even revamping the logo would make the site look more approachable. I know that you are doing a lot of things at the moment, but you might want to work on making a more neat website design for the future.

Agreed. I really appreciate all the work though.

One thing that might help is to make empty categories invisible to buyers. When you are selling you can put it wherever you want, maybe even make a new category. It just make it look really empty as it is now.

That is a great suggestion. This will definitely be included when the new site design is finished.

[TheColdOne]

Thank you for reporting the problem. I had been working with the seller to determine the cause. I notified him of who the real winner was. He also very kindly accommodated both buyers on his own. The reason both people received winning mail notifications was they both bid at "the same time".  This error has been corrected and e-mail notifications will get sent out based upon a more accurate time representation.  I will also be crediting the people who were affected by this with 50BTC credits for their trouble. These credits can be used on biddingpond.com or cashed out.  I am on vacation right now and will have your accounts credited by Wednesday.
[/quote]

That is very generous of you. Thanks

[bittechconsulting]

looks like biddingpond has gone down. Is there an ETA on it coming back?

[FreeMoney]

looks like biddingpond has gone down. Is there an ETA on it coming back?

Not down for me now.

[semyazza]

looks like biddingpond has gone down. Is there an ETA on it coming back?

Sorry for the downtime. Was a mix up while trying to change registrars. Everything should be working once the DNS information propagates through the servers.

[Babylon]

I saw both an Ipad and a dell notebook for sale.  I would have bid on them but I don't have enough capital to do so at the moment.  I hope they both go for a fair price.

[S3052]

This seems to be a problem for many people.

Either there are too few bitcoins created so far and the USD value is too low.

or

People could buy enough at the Bitcoin exchanges but don't trust them enough to buy big chunks of it.

[FreeMoney]

I saw both an Ipad and a dell notebook for sale.  I would have bid on them but I don't have enough capital to do so at the moment.  I hope they both go for a fair price.

I've been thinking about that ipad. I guess I would want to escrow though, the seller has no history and no name I recognize.

[Babylon]

This seems to be a problem for many people.

Either there are too few bitcoins created so far and the USD value is too low.

or

People could buy enough at the Bitcoin exchanges but don't trust them enough to buy big chunks of it.

My problem isn't that there aren't enough bit coins it's that I don't have that much disposable income.

[FreeMoney]

This seems to be a problem for many people.

Either there are too few bitcoins created so far and the USD value is too low.

or

People could buy enough at the Bitcoin exchanges but don't trust them enough to buy big chunks of it.

I don't think it is either of these things. Sure a million dollar house would have the first problem right now, but not a <$1000 computer. And MtGox has a pretty good rep, and you don't take risk vs other traders. And even though you could get burned by a personal PayPal transfer on bitcoinmarket, I don't think it has happened yet.

[S3052]

MtGox has the ostacle to forbid withdrawals before 1 month has passed so a lot of bitcoins are blocked for a while.
and the volume on bitcoinmarket is in my pov rather low

[FreeMoney]

MtGox has the ostacle to forbid withdrawals before 1 month has passed so a lot of bitcoins are blocked for a while.
and the volume on bitcoinmarket is in my pov rather low

People (me) will trade there if there is a good arb opportunity. At the right price you can do a lot over there.

[S3052]

me too !

[jgarzik]

FWIW, I have no clue about how I will get paid for my auction.  The payment process, for buyers and sellers, appears to be completely undocumented.

Do buyers directly pay sellers, or is biddingpond.com an intermediary?
Using a payment processor at biddingpond.com, or simply using the bitcoin client?

Inquiring minds want to know   The 'help' section is basically empty.

[grondilu]

I've never succeeded in logging into this site.

I thought I remembered the passwd correctly but still "wrong password".  Then I click "I forgot my password" and I receive nothing.   ...

[Anonymous]

I've never succeeded in logging into this site.

I thought I remembered the passwd correctly but still "wrong password".  Then I click "I forgot my password" and I receive nothing.   ...

I also had this problem .I forgot my original login and i dont get a password email. I had to set up a secong account under the username bitcoinmedia.

[semyazza]

Hello everyone,
Development on the site was on a temporary hold. We are back up into development mode and more features and a smoother process are on the way.

The site contact address is contact@biddingpond.com .

A simple message board has also been placed on the site to post comments/suggestions/bug reports/items being sold/purchased/support.

Right now it is the responsibility of the buyer and seller to arrange payment with each other. I have included more payment options for those who add new listings as well as those who wish to edit their listing to add a new ones.  There is a message system that can be accessed within the site to send a message to the buyer to arrange payment.

If you are not receiving e-mails including forgotten password requests please check your SPAM folder that also includes people who are not receiving winner notifications and auction close notifications.

If you can not reset your password please send an e-mail to contact@biddingpond.com and I will reset it to a random password manually.

Multi account use will not be tolerated and will be added to the TOS. If you would like an account merged please contact me and I will merge feedback once I verify they are your accounts. Some of you will be receiving e-mails regarding this if you have multiple accounts from a single IP.

You can now view bidder names in the bid history.  A planned feature is bidder screening which will keep people who you do not want bidding on your items from bidding (low feedback,too many negative feedbacks left for others etc.)


Regarding account payments:
Once you get a balance of -500BTC the account will be put on hold from further listings until payment is received. A manual system for payment is currently sending FULL payment to:

127U2BTVQ23td2Fh5dnmdAo6HTXQ3qbNcP

and messaging contact@biddingpond.com with the amount you sent(your FULL account balance), your login and the current block number at time of payment. The automated payment system for auctions as well as site balances will be done soon through the website sendical.com.  You will be able to pay each other, account balances, as well as a simple escrow service (verification of delivery).

[FreeMoney]

Regarding account payments:
Once you get a balance of -500BTC the account will be put on hold from further listings until payment is received.

The account will be put on hold from listing items, but not buying? The site thinks I owe 1000+, but I can still bid. Freezing immediately after wining a big auction seems like a bad way to do it because even if I pay instantly after winning the seller might not confirm for days or weeks. Maybe you could let the seller flag a slow/no payment?

I suppose this is fixed by paying through biddingpond.

The no multiple account rule is pretty weak. Scammers/trolls will just ignore anyway. And some people might have legitimate reasons for keeping their histories separate. There is no way at all for you to tell if I just made a second account or if it was my brother so any enforcement whatsoever is going to piss people off.

I think it would be reasonable to forget the -500 rule and wait and see if nonpayment becomes an issue. If it does you could require partial or full deposit in order to place bids. Since there is low incentive for people to win and not pay (since they won't get anything) a very small token amount that is forfeit if payment is not received should be plenty deterrent.

Just trying to help, keep up the great development!

[S3052]

I agree with FreeMoney in everything.

Biddingpond is great and I would love to sell / buy.

We need to have some more people from Europe as the shipping costs are too high for overseas.

I have great silver coins to sell!

[nanotube]

hey biddingpond owner:

please consider this as a bug report:

you should not reveal bidder's usernames in auction history or high bidder display to the world.

your previous display of "bidder 1, bidder 2" was better regarding bidder privacy.

you should reveal each bidder's name /to each specific bidder/, so that he knows whether he won, or whether he is the high bidder, but you should not reveal usernames of everyone to everyone.

so e.g., if i'm logged in as user "aoeu", and i'm the second bidder, then in the bidding history i might see things like "bidder 1, aoeu, bidder 3, bidder 1, aoeu"
so, when you are logged in, only your name becomes revealed only to you.

[jgarzik]

please consider this as a bug report:

you should not reveal bidder's usernames in auction history or high bidder display to the world.

Are you sure you're not logged in, looking at your own auction?

AFAICT from my own auction, the bidder names were only revealed when I was logged in, looking at my own auctions.

[FreeMoney]

please consider this as a bug report:

you should not reveal bidder's usernames in auction history or high bidder display to the world.

Are you sure you're not logged in, looking at your own auction?

AFAICT from my own auction, the bidder names were only revealed when I was logged in, looking at my own auctions.

No, it is broken, I can see the high bidder on an auction now.

[nanotube]

please consider this as a bug report:

you should not reveal bidder's usernames in auction history or high bidder display to the world.

Are you sure you're not logged in, looking at your own auction?

AFAICT from my own auction, the bidder names were only revealed when I was logged in, looking at my own auctions.

i'm not logged in. pretty sure cuz i don't even have an account there.

this changed as of yesterday. yesterday everyone was "bidder 1, bidder 2", today all nicks are revealed.

[semyazza]

It seems like the majority wanted bidder privacy re-enabled. For the time being I have re-enabled it. In the future this will change as BC-Spec support is planned for us to build a trust network and to broadcast sale information.  With that said, I will allow multiple account use as per FreeMoney's suggestion.  This will allow everyone to both have their anonymity(by using a different name) and allow a a trust network to be established.

I have not determined a way to properly ensure payment while maintaining anonymity and allowing multiple accounts. Currently I am debating between two methods:

1) Suspend accounts after 30 days of a negative balance. The reason you will pay is to keep your positive feedback on the account you currently have(as opposed to opening another account and starting at 0).

2) Require a deposit (as suggested by FreeMoney) and once that balance reaches 0 require another deposit or deny further listings.


Does anyone have other suggestions?


I thank everyone for their input and really do appreciate it.

[kiba]

When are you going to display old auctions?

[mizerydearia]

Upon logging into my account I see reminders:

1 users are awaiting feedback from you
1 new messages

They are plain text however.  It would be convenient if they were links that led me to pages with more information so that I wouldn't have to search through the site to find the appropriate pages.

[S3052]

Hi Everyone,

I decided to give it a try selling my beloved stamp collection of Ascension Island First Cover of 2007.

http://www.biddingpond.com/browse.php?id=72

Hope you like it.

[S3052]

here is the picture

[S3052]

Biddingpond is not widely used enough and hence "quite useless". Unfortunately.

The site is in my p.o.v one of the best designed site in the BTC world. But it lacks awareness, offers (sellers) and buyers.

Probably this is connected to the low absolute numbers of people owning BTC's. With only a couple of hundred BTC active users and then only a handful people registered at biddingpond the likelihood is too low that sellers and buyers match.

The key is to quickly increase the possibility for the avergae Joe to buy bitcoins (via exchanges) and then advertise biddingpond (if we have the goal on making this work).

[doublec]

Biddingpond is not widely used enough and hence "quite useless". Unfortunately.

One of the problems is that most auctions will not ship outside the USA, including your one. That cuts down on a lot of potential customers willing to bid.

[S3052]

Actually mine ships globally (something did not work properly when I was activating the auction) . I tried to edit it and it did not work neither.
But overall you are right, international shipping is key , especially with the current low user base.

[Anonymous]

What if people started buying and selling bitcoins on biddingpond?

So you could add your bank account details and get direct transfers to keep the scammers away?

[doublec]

Actually mine ships globally (something did not work properly when I was activating the auction) . I tried to edit it and it did not work neither.
But overall you are right, international shipping is key , especially with the current low user base.

Does it default to USA shipping? That might be why I see most options not having global shipping.

[FreeMoney]

When people make a reserve it can be impossible to win.

I bid high on something, but my bid only goes up to what it needs above the other bidder. This means I can't bid up to the reserve amount.

[semyazza]

Biddingpond.com will have unscheduled down time from 6:30AM - 8:00PM Today, November 08, 2010.  There has been a recent surge in bandwidth consumption (either DDOS or some other type) as well as some attacks on the site. The site will be shut down while I investigate the situation.  Any listings that are scheduled to end today will be extended by 24 hours.  Thank you for your time and patience.

[semyazza]

Biddingpond.com is back up and running. We were experiencing what seems to have been a DDOS from somewhere in South East Asia(Over 5 GB/bandwidth in 2 hours). I had to block traffic from a large IP mask. If for some reason you are located in South East Asia and are affected by this please send me an e-mail at contact@biddingpond.com with your IP address and I will unblock it.

To all auctions that were affected:
The auction has been extended by 24 hours. I am sorry for the inconvenience.


Thank You,
BiddingPond.com

[semyazza]

Listing Fees have been update to reflect the value change in Bitcoins.


The new fees are as follows:

Home Page Featured Fee: 2.00 BTC   
Bold Item Fee: 1.00 BTC   
Highlighted Item Fee: 1.00 BTC   
Reserve Price Fee: 2.00 BTC
Relist Fee: 1.00 BTC   
Buy Now Fee: 2.00 BTC


As always, regular listings on the site are free.

[jgarzik]

Have you added BTC payment methods yet?

I owe biddingpond.com a couple BTC for listings w/ buy now, but the site said something like

     "Use one of the following payment methods to pay your account:"
     [blank list, end of page]

[S3052]

http://www.biddingpond.com/item.php?id=85

I am offering again my beautiful stamp collection.. maybe a x-mas gift?

[bitcoinex]

Why frog on the logo does not smile? It looks very strange

[semyazza]

BiddingPond.com will be experiencing downtime on 01/26/2011 @ 8PM EST. We are changing DNS providers to better accommodate new features.
While our DNS updates propagate throughout the internet you may access the site at:
http://biddingpond.nfshost.com/ if you have trouble viewing via other methods.


BiddingPond.com will be experiencing downtime on 01/27/2011 @ 12PM EST. We are changing hosting providers to better accommodate new features.

[semyazza]

DNS transfer has gone successfully.While our DNS updates propagate throughout the internet you may access the site at:
http://biddingpond.nfshost.com/
if you have trouble viewing via other methods. 


I have also started to integrate captchas into the website before placing a bid to reduce(eliminate?) automated bid sniping.

[FreeMoney]

DNS transfer has gone successfully.While our DNS updates propagate throughout the internet you may access the site at:
http://biddingpond.nfshost.com/
if you have trouble viewing via other methods. 


I have also started to integrate captchas into the website before placing a bid to reduce(eliminate?) automated bid sniping.

I am much opposed to the captchas. Sniping is not a problem, you already have an automated bidder in place.

[kldunc]

Last night I set email preferences to one cumulative email once a day and over night I received 29 emails saying my auction ended yesterday. Is this a known issue?

it is now up to 44 emails

[semyazza]

Last night I set email preferences to one cumulative email once a day and over night I received 29 emails saying my auction ended yesterday. Is this a known issue?

it is now up to 44 emails

Please contact me via PM or e-mail concerning this. What are you receiving e-mails about? You should not receive 29 e-mails not matter what.

[semyazza]

Biddingpond.com is completing its move to a new web host. Periodic downtime is to be expected throughout the day. If any Auctions are affected they will be extended by the time that the site is down.

Biddingpond.com has completed its move to a new web host. No auctions were due to close during the move and everything seems to have gone smoothly.

If you experience any errors please e-mail contact@biddingpond.com

[barbarousrelic]

If you experience any errors ...

hi, is your email delivery up&running?
my "confirmation e-mail" never arrived

Neither did mine.

[semyazza]

If you experience any errors ...

hi, is your email delivery up&running?
my "confirmation e-mail" never arrived

Neither did mine.

Investigating the situation. It's probably because of the server move. I will update this post when it is corrected. In the meantime please e-mail me your username at contact@biddingpond.com and I will manually activate your account.

[barbarousrelic]

If you experience any errors ...

hi, is your email delivery up&running?
my "confirmation e-mail" never arrived

Neither did mine.

Investigating the situation. It's probably because of the server move. I will update this post when it is corrected. In the meantime please e-mail me your username at contact@biddingpond.com and I will manually activate your account.

Mine wasn't a new account, I just didn't get the email confirming an auction I had posted. Also, I had selected that I wanted to pay 1 BTC to have my auction bolded, which didn't happen, I presume because payment for that would have been arranged in the email.

[semyazza]

If you experience any errors ...

hi, is your email delivery up&running?
my "confirmation e-mail" never arrived

Neither did mine.

Investigating the situation. It's probably because of the server move. I will update this post when it is corrected. In the meantime please e-mail me your username at contact@biddingpond.com and I will manually activate your account.

Mine wasn't a new account, I just didn't get the email confirming an auction I had posted. Also, I had selected that I wanted to pay 1 BTC to have my auction bolded, which didn't happen, I presume because payment for that would have been arranged in the email.

Auction features are selected before bid purchasing. E-mail is down as per notice on the website. I have a new BiddingPond version in the works with a multitude of minor bug fixes on the way. Also, I have included a couple of extra features that will make bidding, listing and selling easier. I also have added the ability to sell items "Buy it now" with no bidding option.

[semyazza]

Investigating the situation.

did you deactivated the email confirmations of new accounts?
i've created account 1GOCH0
1) email pending
2) could login

Yes,
E-mail confirmations have been disabled. The new site(coming real soon) will not require a valid e-mail account to register. I have also added a couple of new features. E-mail updates will be turned back on when the new site comes online(auction outbid notices, new listing notices,messaged,etc.).

[Anonymous]

I can't close or remove any auctions. I really want to close my silver auction and sell it all separately as buy it now.

[semyazza]

I can't close or remove any auctions. I really want to close my silver auction and sell it all separately as buy it now.

Auctions can not be closed once someone has bid on the item.

[romanoza]

wtf with pics?
http://habreffect.ru/files/026/09e433c60/screenshot1.png

[semyazza]

wtf with pics?

Low quality pictures were uploaded by the member. Garbage in Garbage out.

Was a bug. Bug fixed in upcoming version.

[barbarousrelic]

Auction features are selected before bid purchasing.

What do you mean by this? Where do I get an address where I should send my 1 BTC to pay for bolding my auction?

[semyazza]

wtf with pics?

probably the code that highlights an auction on the frontpage is bokeh
inside the auction the thumbs work just fine.
this is a great example why writing 2 times the same code is not a good idea
if he'd reuse the thumbnail from the auction code, this would not happen

Issue resolved in new version of biddingpond(Coming Soon). Lots of bug fixes. I should have a Beta version ready for testing and bug reports by sunday.

[semyazza]

Auction features are selected before bid purchasing.

What do you mean by this? Where do I get an address where I should send my 1 BTC to pay for bolding my auction?

Currently it debits your account for the transaction. All new accounts have a 5BTC listing credit. I have been letting people accumulate balances as I have been working on fixing minor bugs and the payment system. New version will require account payment every 30 days.

[Anonymous]

Is there anyway I can revamp my Silver auction without the reserve? It is practically ruined due to the recent spike in Bitcoin value.

[Anonymous]

I had a use claim he paid me already through BiddingPond when my Bitcoin address isn't even on the site. What's the deal?

[semyazza]

I had a use claim he paid me already through BiddingPond when my Bitcoin address isn't even on the site. What's the deal?

He's lying or misinformed. BiddingPond has no feature as of yet to pay each other through the site. That feature is on the way though.

[semyazza]

Is there anyway I can revamp my Silver auction without the reserve? It is practically ruined due to the recent spike in Bitcoin value.

I do not want to edit auctions as that is unfair to the bidders. You can still sell the item to the "winner" if you choose even though they do not meet the reserve price.

[semyazza]

The new biddingpond.com is now live! There have been many changes to the site!
Although we have tried our best to iron out all the bugs if you do encounter one:
Please report all bugs to http://www.biddingpond.com/msgboard.php?board_id=4


Some of the most notable changes are as follows:

New Layout
Account Balance and Bitcoin Wallet
Auto generated payment addresses in auctions
Unique QR code per auction
Social Network Integration
Ability to list "Buy it Now" without also requiring an auction
Ability to automatically re-list the item if it does not sell.

---------------------------------------------


Some things we may need you to do:
1) Update your Bitcoin forwarding address so we may forward payments sent to your auction address.

You may do this by going to "My Control Panel" at the top of the page when you're logged in and clicking on "Edit your personal profile". At the bottom you will see a location to enter your Bitcoin address.

2)Pay us your back auction fees. Any accounts that reach -25BTC for money owed will be temporarily suspended until payment is received. If you need some time to pay please contact us at contact@biddingpond.com. We will also be auctioning off listing credits all this week to help those with large balances catch up and to celebrate the new site becoming live.

---------------------------------------------


Unfortunately during the move some items are not working and are currently being worked on. These items are:

1) Payments sent to bitcoin auction address will not currently forward to your forwarding address immediately after confirmations. We will manually process these transactions every day at 12pm EST.  (We hope to have this corrected by the end of the day. When it is payments will be forwarded after 5 confirmations)

2) Payments received through the auction "Payment Address" will not automatically update the auction as paid(this should be fixed by the end of today).

[grondilu]

Damn it I totally forgot about this upgrade of your website.

Had I remembered, I would have been waiting a bit before making my recent auction for a gold coin.

I hope the transition will work fine.

PS.  What is this "paiement address" about??  This is NOT one of my address.  Please explain.

[semyazza]

Damn it I totally forgot about this upgrade of your website.

Had I remembered, I would have been waiting a bit before making my recent auction for a gold coin.

I hope the transition will work fine.

PS.  What is this "paiement address" about??  This is NOT one of my address.  Please explain.

The "Bidding" code was not touched and I have no fear about those types of bugs showing up as it does not depend on other parts of the site code.

The "Payment Address" field is a simple way for users to send payment to the seller.  When payment is sent to that address the auction will be marked as paid in the seller control panel and after confirmations are received will be forwarded to the sellers bitcoin payment address. 

You may update your payment forwarding address at:
http://www.biddingpond.com/edit_data.php

If you do not provide a payment forwarding address all funds will be held in a "Bitcoin Wallet" until an address is provided which can be viewed at:
http://www.biddingpond.com/user_menu.php?

Seller's are under no obligation to use this feature and may instruct the buyers to pay however they wish.  This is simply a convenience feature which will mark auctions as paid and simplifies payment issues for the buyer and the seller.

[jkminkov]

http://www.biddingpond.com/item.php?id=407

how about implementing a deposit of 10% of bid price, which can be split by you and the seller if buyer fails to pay

[grondilu]

Seller's are under no obligation to use this feature and may instruct the buyers to pay however they wish.  This is simply a convenience feature which will mark auctions as paid and simplifies payment issues for the buyer and the seller.

Ok, seems fair enough.

[grondilu]

Biddingpond, on second thought I'm not sure I see any real advantage in using you as a third party.

I have to think about it, but for the moment, what could I do to remove this "paiement address" from the auction page?

[semyazza]

Biddingpond, on second thought I'm not sure I see any real advantage in using you as a third party.

I have to think about it, but for the moment, what could I do to remove this "paiement address" from the auction page?

If you would like please send me an e-mail at contact@biddingpond.com and we can discuss it further.

[grondilu]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


I see no reason why we should discuss this in private, as this might be of interest for other people.  If you're concern is about me being really the same "grondilu" as the one on your site, then I sign this message.

Now, please explain me why I should use you as a third party, when so far my auction went fine by giving directly a bitcoin address to the buyer.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)

iEYEARECAAYFAk2MxMUACgkQq17371C4Dmjs4QCfSt380p/G0GKTbPVLJhlT3vUU
WMwAoKYvoxKworAPWEVh5V+qJeo1mut0
=cuiz
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[theGECK]

FYI, Biddingpond.com is not displaying correctly to me.

[semyazza]

I see no reason why we should discuss this in private, as this might be of interest for other people.  If you're concern is about me being really the same "grondilu" as the one on your site, then I sign this message.

Now, please explain me why I should use you as a third party, when so far my auction went fine by giving directly a bitcoin address to the buyer.

The Short answer
1) There is no need to use us as a third party
2) Your method is still valid and works very well
3) Protection to the sellers reputation
4) Additional optional features in the future will require this

Our Questions
1) What do you believe would be a better alternative?*
2) Would you prefer an opt-in service in which you either get access to the extra features or not?**


*We do not like the idea of allowing the seller to enter any address in the payment address field. As there is nothing preventing a scammer to state that they did not provide an address and it is a biddingpond.com generated address(a Bitcoin peculiarity in inability to determine destination). Yes, we do understand that there is nothing preventing a scammer from saying they they never received payment from us. But, that will come down to trust (if you chose to use the optional feature).

** This option we believe works well.  But, understand that if we implement this feature those who chose it will not be able to provide some features to their buyers.


The Long Answer

There is no obligation for the seller to require the users to use the payment address listed in the auction.

We agree to the working nature of the following transaction process that you are currently using:
1) Buyer Wins Auction
2) Seller / Buyer make contact
3) Payment information provided
4) Payment Sent + Shipping information sent
5) Payment Receipt confirmed by buyer
6) Item shipped
This is also the reason why we would never prohibit any seller from accepting payment in an alternative way.

To simplify the transaction process our current system is as follows:
1) Buyer wins auction
2) Payment Sent
3) Seller notified of shipping address
4) Item shipped
We also plan on shortening this process one more step by allowing the buyers to include shipping information that is automatically forwarded to the sender after payment is sent(optional). This will further streamline the process and make it easier for less tech savvy individuals to purchase items.

We also will be implementing the following optional features which will require us to handle transactions:
1) Escrow and Arbitration
2) "Trusted Sellers" Program
3) Ability to purchase items in USD and send payment in BTC to Seller (for the less tech savvy)
4) Other features which we do not wish to reveal at this time to keep us competitive


There is also a very real and very important benefit that we chose to include last.  By publicly posting a Bitcoin address that is generated by BiddingPond.com and is unique to each auction we can protect both the sites reputation as well as the seller's reputation as others can in fact see if the buyer did send payment. This provided with proper tracking information from the seller can effectively prevent Feedback Extortion.

I would just like to reiterate that these features are optional and the old BiddingPond.com is not going anywhere.  BiddingPond.com prefers giving the sellers and buyers a "hands-off" approach with their transactions but, we do understand there are buyers and sellers who wish otherwise and we will cater to those individuals through our additional, completely optional, services.

One way our "hands-off" approach can be seen in practice is our failure to require payment of selling fees before we forward payment to the seller.  This allows the seller the choice to pay us, not the requirement to pay us.

[semyazza]

FYI, Biddingpond.com is not displaying correctly to me.

Is it possible to take a screen shot/explain what is not displaying correctly.  Also, please provide OS,browser version and screen resolution.  You can e-mail us at contact@biddingpond.com or alternatively post here.

[Stephen Gornick]

There wouldn't happen to be access to the old site (read-only even) so that I could snag an old listing so I can re-list?

[semyazza]

There wouldn't happen to be access to the old site (read-only even) so that I could snag an old listing so I can re-list?

All data was copied over from the old site. You "should" be able to relist that auction by going to http://www.biddingpond.com/yourauctions_sold.php .  If it is for some reason not there, please provide the auction number and we will get the auction data for you.

[grondilu]

The Long Answer
....

Ok that makes sense.  It is true that the "contact" part was a bit tedious.  We didn't know exactly if we should chose to use regular email or internal biddingpond messaging system.  It was a bit confusing, so I understand getting rid of this part could be beneficial.

The thing is that when I had make this auction, I didn't know about this new feature you've implemented, so I feel like I am a bit put in the corner.

Right now in my auction there is a part saying "Payment address: xxxxxx",  and there is NO INDICATION whether this paiement address is mine or yours.  I think it is confusing for the buyer, especially since I didn't know I should warn the buyer not to use this paiement method.  Basically now if I wanted to stick with the old method for this auction, I just don't know how I could, since I can't edit the auction message and say something like "do not use the bitcoin address below, I'll provide you a bitcoin address via biddingpond's internal message system, in due time".

What I will do for this auction is that I will try your new method, after all as a seller I don't have much to risk, since if I don't receive the bitcoins, I'll just don't send the gold coin.  I've just realised that

So, to sum up:  ok, I'll try your new method for this auction.  Depending on how well it works, I might use it in the future too.

[semyazza]

The Long Answer
....

Ok that makes sense.  It is true that the "contact" part was a bit tedious.  We didn't know exactly if we should chose to use regular email or internal biddingpond messaging system.  It was a bit confusing, so I understand getting rid of this part could be beneficial.

The thing is that when I had make this auction, I didn't know about this new feature you've implemented, so I feel like I am a bit put in the corner.

Right now in my auction there is a part saying "Payment address: xxxxxx",  and there is NO INDICATION whether this paiement address is mine or yours.  I think it is confusing for the buyer, especially since I didn't know I should warn the buyer not to use this paiement method.  Basically now if I wanted to stick with the old method for this auction, I just don't know how I could, since I can't edit the auction message and say something like "do not use the bitcoin address below, I'll provide you a bitcoin address via biddingpond's internal message system, in due time".

What I will do for this auction is that I will try your new method, after all as a seller I don't have much to risk, since if I don't receive the bitcoins, I'll just don't send the gold coin.  I've just realised that

So, to sum up:  ok, I'll try your new method for this auction.  Depending on how well it works, I might use it in the future too.

I'm sorry for the confusion.  If you would like your auction edited please send the text you would like appended. Alternatively, for this auction your Bitcoin address in the payment address field is possible just send the proper address.

[semyazza]

FYI, Biddingpond.com is not displaying correctly to me.

Is it possible to take a screen shot/explain what is not displaying correctly.  Also, please provide OS,browser version and screen resolution.  You can e-mail us at contact@biddingpond.com or alternatively post here.

Is anyone else able to replicate usability problems?  Looking at usage data it seems people are having an easier time using the site.  Using multiple OS/Browsers and browsershots.org still unable to replicate a problem.  There is a single user using RockMelt.  Is that you?

[semyazza]

http://www.biddingpond.com/item.php?id=407

how about implementing a deposit of 10% of bid price, which can be split by you and the seller if buyer fails to pay

This is a good idea and is liked.  We have someone looking to join our development team. If it works out we will include this on the to do sooner than later list.

[Stephen Gornick]

There wouldn't happen to be access to the old site (read-only even) so that I could snag an old listing so I can re-list?

All data was copied over from the old site. You "should" be able to relist that auction by going to http://www.biddingpond.com/yourauctions_sold.php .  If it is for some reason not there, please provide the auction number and we will get the auction data for you.

All data?  It looks like only auctions within the past month or so were copied over.  For example, only March auctions have links:
  http://www.biddingpond.com/feedback.php?id=103&faction=show
I wasn't expecting all the old auctions to be migrated over.  EBay, for instance, drops the listing after a couple months.

[semyazza]

There wouldn't happen to be access to the old site (read-only even) so that I could snag an old listing so I can re-list?

All data was copied over from the old site. You "should" be able to relist that auction by going to http://www.biddingpond.com/yourauctions_sold.php .  If it is for some reason not there, please provide the auction number and we will get the auction data for you.

All data?  It looks like only auctions within the past month or so were copied over.  For example, only March auctions have links:
  http://www.biddingpond.com/feedback.php?id=103&faction=show
I wasn't expecting all the old auctions to be migrated over.  EBay, for instance, drops the listing after a couple months.

Yes,
BiddingPond.com also deletes auction data as well. Our retention policy is at least 30 days for complete auction information.

[semyazza]

FYI, Biddingpond.com is not displaying correctly to me.

Is it possible to take a screen shot/explain what is not displaying correctly.  Also, please provide OS,browser version and screen resolution.  You can e-mail us at contact@biddingpond.com or alternatively post here.

Is anyone else able to replicate usability problems?  Looking at usage data it seems people are having an easier time using the site.  Using multiple OS/Browsers and browsershots.org still unable to replicate a problem.  There is a single user using RockMelt.  Is that you?

Problem was related to the way Adblock plugin blocks ads.  This issue has been fixed.  Thank you "theGECK" for help with troubleshooting this issue.

[grondilu]

Yes maybe I should mention that I too have some minor displaying problems with the new site.

I'm using the Arora web browser under Debian GNU/linux.

Here is a screenshot:

[semyazza]

Yes maybe I should mention that I too have some minor displaying problems with the new site.

I'm using the Arora web browser under Debian GNU/linux.

Here is a screenshot:

...

Thank you working on it.

[semyazza]

BiddingPond.com now supports SSL sign-on and registration.

[semyazza]

BiddingPond.com now has a Facebook Page and Twitter Account.

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BiddingPond/124424594302343


Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/biddingpond

And Please don't forget to like us on Facebook!

[xf2_org]

Repeating a question from November 2010:

Have you added BTC payment methods yet?

I participated in an auction (this is 'jgarzik' under a new nick), but was unable to pay your fee because your site did not have any automated method of receiving bitcoins, and acknowledging receipt.

[semyazza]

Repeating a question from November 2010:

Have you added BTC payment methods yet?

I participated in an auction (this is 'jgarzik' under a new nick), but was unable to pay your fee because your site did not have any automated method of receiving bitcoins, and acknowledging receipt.

We must have missed your post.  Yes, we have a payment method.  Please contact us for a payment address.

[semyazza]

BiddingPond.com has updated its fee structure to accommodate the increasing value of Bitcoins.  As always listing on BiddingPond.com is absolutely free!

Updated Fee Structure:
Regular Auction: FREE!
Home Page Featured Fee: 0.50 BTC
Bold Item Fee: 0.10 BTC
Highlighted Item Fee: 0.20 BTC
Reserve Price Fee: 0.25 BTC
Relist Fee: 0.10 BTC
Buy Now Fee: 0.05 BTC

[RodeoX]

Thanks for the update. I will have to check my toy box tonight to see what I can put up for sale.

[hiVe]

I wonder if anyone got scammed in any way so far.
It seems extremely easy to set people up... especially lately, lots of new sellers with new accounts poped up...can anyone share the experience?

Also, seems like people don't really care to leave feedbacks, its a great way to find out who can be trusted... or am i wrong?

[RodeoX]

I wonder if anyone got scammed in any way so far.
It seems extremely easy to set people up... especially lately, lots of new sellers with new accounts poped up...can anyone share the experience?

Also, seems like people don't really care to leave feedbacks, its a great way to find out who can be trusted... or am i wrong?

I have only sold two items, but I have had two great experiences at biddingpond.

[hiVe]

How about making a list of trusted sellers or something like that, cuz very few people ever leave feedback on Biddingpool...

[Littleshop]

How about making a list of trusted sellers or something like that, cuz very few people ever leave feedback on Biddingpool...

I think people should just leave feedback on the site.  I did for all of my transactions.  It takes just a few seconds, it is easy. 

If something goes wrong, list it on the site, and on this board so as many people as possible know.  I won four auctions, and was very happy with three of them.  The fourth, giftomatic, ripped me off and I left him a negative. 

[hiVe]

True, i would do that [leave feedback that is] however if something goes wrong, noone's gonna pay you back...and if I see well, the prices on auctions sometimes jump quite high, and the loss of say...300btc is quite...quite substantial. I find that soo disturbing. Besides, how much is enough, 1 refereal...2? -.-

[semyazza]

True, i would do that [leave feedback that is] however if something goes wrong, noone's gonna pay you back...and if I see well, the prices on auctions sometimes jump quite high, and the loss of say...300btc is quite...quite substantial. I find that soo disturbing. Besides, how much is enough, 1 refereal...2? -.-

We suggest clearcoin for all large purchase items and seller's with low feedback scores(less than 50).  You can access clear coin at http://clearcoin.com/ .  We will be offering our own escrow service in the future(unknown date) but believe clearcoin to be the best option right now.

[barbarousrelic]

When I click on "Coins and Stamps" it says "Coins (2)" but there is only one auction below it.

Screenshot:

https://i.imgur.com/DWgt6.png

[Diablo]

I wonder if anyone got scammed in any way so far.
It seems extremely easy to set people up... especially lately, lots of new sellers with new accounts poped up...can anyone share the experience?

Also, seems like people don't really care to leave feedbacks, its a great way to find out who can be trusted... or am i wrong?

Yep. Tried to buy 2 things and pretty sure they were from the same scammer.
Depresses me a bit, but yeah.

Guess I'll be more careful next time.
I trust people too easily.

But yes, it does seem to be me that it is easy to scam.

[semyazza]

BiddingPond.com has updated its fee structure to accommodate the increasing value of Bitcoins.  As always listing on BiddingPond.com is absolutely free!

Regular Auction: FREE!
Home Page Featured Fee: 0.25 BTC
Bold Item Fee: 0.05 BTC
Highlighted Item Fee: 0.10 BTC
Reserve Price Fee: 0.13 BTC
Images Upload Fee: 0.02 BTC
Relist Fee: 0.05 BTC
Buy Now Fee: 0.03 BTC

http://www.biddingpond.com/fees.php

[semyazza]

Due to the ever increasing attacks from the Tor network, we will be blocking all tor originating traffic.  We understand this will inconvenience some users and are working on an alternative way for Tor users to access our site while maintaining site security.

[JamezQ]

It seems some people have bots set up. As soon as I bid I am "outbid" instantly.

Or is this some strange option in your site?

[semyazza]

It seems some people have bots set up. As soon as I bid I am "outbid" instantly.

Or is this some strange option in your site?

If you place an amount higher than the current bid the site will bid on your behalf until it reaches your max bid amount.  This is called "Proxy Bidding" and is the standard for online auction sites.

[JamezQ]

I see...

Thank you for informing me.

[semyazza]

BiddingPond has implemented new heuristic searches to find and deny access to the website for those who are shill bidding and actively defrauding users.  If you find yourself denied and unable to access the site please contact us at contact@biddingpond.com with your account information so we may investigate the situation.

[pc]

Site seems to be down, in some kind of redirect loop between index.php and message.php.

[semyazza]

Site seems to be down, in some kind of redirect loop between index.php and message.php.

The site is up without a problem.

Please contact support with your IP address and username.  Also, be aware that TOR originating traffic is being rejected as well as those accounts that have been linked to scammers and those who have been shills recently and in the past.

[semyazza]

We have made some site tweaks to speed up loading.  Please let us know if the site runs faster for you.

[FreeMoney]

I think I was scammed. I don't blame biddingpond at all. I was stupid all around, mainly for not insisting on clearcoin.

I just want everyone to know that no bad feedback doesn't mean squat. Accounts are free and you can scam multiple people before anyone is sure that the items aren't coming anyway.

[demonofelru]

I think I was scammed. I don't blame biddingpond at all. I was stupid all around, mainly for not insisting on clearcoin.

I just want everyone to know that no bad feedback doesn't mean squat. Accounts are free and you can scam multiple people before anyone is sure that the items aren't coming anyway.

Mind elaborating? Yeah I would never not use clearcoin for anything over a couple bucks no reason in my opinion to not use clearcoin other then trying to scam.

[FreeMoney]

I think I was scammed. I don't blame biddingpond at all. I was stupid all around, mainly for not insisting on clearcoin.

I just want everyone to know that no bad feedback doesn't mean squat. Accounts are free and you can scam multiple people before anyone is sure that the items aren't coming anyway.

Mind elaborating? Yeah I would never not use clearcoin for anything over a couple bucks no reason in my opinion to not use clearcoin other then trying to scam.

I bought an ipad from a guy with 1 (maybe 2) previous sales and no feedback. He said he needed the money quick (the auction was just 1 day long) so I paid him directly. He emailed 2 days later saying it was in the mail and he would send a tracking number soon. Now it's been 10 days or so and no response or package. One of his other buyers now says no package yet as well.

[demonofelru]

I think I was scammed. I don't blame biddingpond at all. I was stupid all around, mainly for not insisting on clearcoin.

I just want everyone to know that no bad feedback doesn't mean squat. Accounts are free and you can scam multiple people before anyone is sure that the items aren't coming anyway.

Mind elaborating? Yeah I would never not use clearcoin for anything over a couple bucks no reason in my opinion to not use clearcoin other then trying to scam.

I bought an ipad from a guy with 1 (maybe 2) previous sales and no feedback. He said he needed the money quick (the auction was just 1 day long) so I paid him directly. He emailed 2 days later saying it was in the mail and he would send a tracking number soon. Now it's been 10 days or so and no response or package. One of his other buyers now says no package yet as well.

Sorry to hear that at least bidding pond admin seems to be trying with that heuristics thingy.

[semyazza]

We recommend using Clearcoin for any non-trivial amount.  BiddingPond takes a non intervention approach to payments.  This, coupled with the non-reversible nature of Bitcoins makes it "Buyer Beware".

We recommend the following for safe trading on BiddingPond.

1) Always use Clearcoin or other Escrow service for non-trivial amounts.
2) If you choose not to use an escrow service:
    a) Check the sellers detail page and look at feedback and sign up date.  Do this for the people who have       also left positive feedback for the seller.
    b) Only deal with trusted Bitcoin community members
    c)  If the offer is too good to be true.  It probably is.

We are currently working on a project that will provide escrow services and will be tightly integrated with the site so that sellers and buyers can be more protected.

We have also blocked Tor originating traffic to the website.  This coupled with new heuristic searches will ban accounts and other resolutions will make BiddingPond a safer place.

[hiVe]

Bidding-pond is a great site. Unfortunately its soooooooo popular among scam-lovers that it limits its use to practically 0.
Wish this would change.

I've lost a lot already [especially based on current btc/euro prices] but I learned from my mistakes and don't go into deals w/o escrow.

But what to do if a potentially legitimate user doesn't wish to use escrow service? After all its not that straightforward...like now some deals popping up on HTC devices, looks tempting, the guy replies frequently but doesn't even wanna hear about Clearcoin... does that guarantee that he wants to scam me?

Im a European buyer.

[semyazza]

To Buyers:
BiddingPond always states to use escrow with untrusted buyers.  We also believe to use escrow with bidders that have less than 50 positive feedback and for non-trivial amounts.  If a seller refuses to use escrow after a customer requests it, they are in fact, refusing your business.

BiddingPond is constantly battling DDOS's, Attacks, Scammers, "Other Bad Traffic" on a daily basis and are trying hard to maintain a safer atmosphere on the site.  If our recommendations are followed you will have a safe and secure "Bitcoin Bidding Experience".

To Sellers:
You are in fact losing business and profit by not accepting an escrow solution on your auctions.  Not accepting escrow makes you look like a scammer, especially with low feedback/limited feedback history.

Those of you who would not mind accepting escrow please list it in your auction descriptions!  Watch the value of your auction increase and profit!

[semyazza]

BiddingPond.com is currently down.  We have experienced an influx of DDoS attacks on the website and are transitioning to a new server. All affected auctions will be extended by the time period that they were down. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We are now back up. We apologize for the inconvenience.

[semyazza]

BiddingPond.com has updated its fee schedule.  You may find it below. And remember it's always free to list and every account gets free BTC listing credits to try our premium features!

Standard Auction: ALWAYS FREE
Auction Setup:FREE
Buyer Fee: FREE
Reserve Price: FREE
Images Upload: FREE
Auto Relist: FREE
Buy Now: FREE
Final Price Fee: FREE! Keep Your Money!
Subtitle:FREE
Multiple Categories:FREE
Home Page Featured Fee: 0.25 BTC
Bold Item Fee: 0.05 BTC
Highlighted Item Fee: 0.10 BTC

[hiVe]

Folks, is it just me or lately or are the Biddingponders playing with rating and stuff.

I see a ton of new stuff, a ton of new people every day offering cool gadgets, and when you check their rating, they are ALL positive!

Gack wtf? a user registered for less than a DAY already has a positive rating...from who? well isn't that weird, from SOMEONE that is registered also for less than a DAY! :O

Now I could call that a coincidence, or it could be classified as a attempt to fool EVERYONE.

Ok granted, Im not following every new auction, but its kinda hard to miss something that would normally be up for sale at least 10 hours and is a pretty lucrative item...

I see a scenario where user "A" making an auction for a very short time, user B [user "A's" second account?] bidding and winning the auction...then then rating each other just to get positive rating/feedback and possibly fool people in the future interested in his/their cool new offerings.

Seriously we need message-boards at bidding pond.

[semyazza]

Seriously we need message-boards at bidding pond.

This will be implemented by the days end.

[freecoin]

Two things would really help make BiddingPond a professional auction site.

1) Stop putting BiddingPond's bitcoin address as Newbies payto address.  I've seen this multiple times; new user puts up first auction, buyer sends BTC to address in auction listing.  "Hey buyer do you want this or not?"  "Dude, I frackin paid you" "no you didn't"  "Yes I did" "where's my $, what bitcoin address?"  "Sonofanutcracker BiddingPond's got the money" etc.

2)  Put up a frackin BID NOW button.  How is anybody I email a listing to gonna bid, huh?  A new BP user will search in vain for the BID button and move on.

[semyazza]

Two things would really help make BiddingPond a professional auction site.

1) Stop putting BiddingPond's bitcoin address as Newbies payto address.  I've seen this multiple times; new user puts up first auction, buyer sends BTC to address in auction listing.  "Hey buyer do you want this or not?"  "Dude, I frackin paid you" "no you didn't"  "Yes I did" "where's my $, what bitcoin address?"  "Sonofanutcracker BiddingPond's got the money" etc.

2)  Put up a frackin BID NOW button.  How is anybody I email a listing to gonna bid, huh?  A new BP user will search in vain for the BID button and move on.

Suggestions noted. We are actually working on a complete rewrite and redesign of the site with integrated escrow and other fun features.  This version will also have a better FAQ and tutorials.

[static]

i have high hopes for this BiddingPond. i really like it. it fills a need for the community. make sure you make money at it. low fees are nice. but i would hate to see this fail due to lack of resources.

[RodeoX]

I just want add a +1 to anyone considering biddingpond. There is no way to crush all the problem users and crooks at any website, but Biddingpond has always been willing to answer questions and do whatever they can to help.

[freecoin]

"Firefox can't find the server at www.biddingpond.com"

[TTBit]

random thought: Instead of bidding, why not send the coins to a personal bid address for each auction. This way, there are no fake bids. losing bids get their coins back obviously. You might not want to do that if buying a laptop or car, but if I'm bidding on a 0.85btc beach ball, it speeds up the whole process.

[semyazza]

random thought: Instead of bidding, why not send the coins to a personal bid address for each auction. This way, there are no fake bids. losing bids get their coins back obviously. You might not want to do that if buying a laptop or car, but if I'm bidding on a 0.85btc beach ball, it speeds up the whole process.

Great idea!  We are actually working on a similar feature.  I know a lot of you are tired of hearing the "It's coming soon" but, we are working as hard as possible to make sure the next version is rock solid, concrete, and bug free.  The new version will also be a complete rewrite as we have hit a wall with PHP as far as productivity is concerned and have settled on Python.  The site is usable as/is but, there are usability issues which we need to address.  Most of our current time has been spent making sure the transition of BitcoinCashout.com went smoothly to Bitcoin Solutions LLC.  We have picked up development again.

What we are working on right now is:
Sellers will decide if they require a deposit before bidding (adjustable between 10-50%).  If the user backs out of the auction the deposit is split 50/50 between the seller and BiddingPond.  BiddingPond's 50% will be further split between site operations and a buyer protection fund.

An additional option will be a "secured bid" where the full bid amount is required before it is placed.

These options will be seller select-able.

As always we thank our faithful users who have stayed loyal to us and continue to use us.  We promise there is a better BiddingPond on the horizon.  

Additionally, the lead developer will be at the Bitcoin Conference in NYC and looks forward to meeting everyone . He is one of the shared management at Bitcoin Solutions LLC and will be at their booth.

[semyazza]

BiddingPond.com has had some updates today.

Changes:
Moved to a new server (again)
Minor Style Changes on Site
Removed Auto-Forwarding of payments (new users were getting confused)
Pushed the beginnings of the escrow system (live soon)
Speed improvements through out the site
Turned off ALL fees until October 31,2011 (LIST YOUR ITEMS NOW!)
 - When they are turned back on new listings will be assessed a fee that must be paid at time of listing (Always free to list, extras a nominal cost!)
Cleaned up Privacy Policy (Visual Changes Only)
Cleaned up Terms and Conditions (Visual Changes Only)
Added temporary about us section
Password change bug should be fixed (contact us if you are still having trouble changing your password)
Intermittent Login bug has been fixed
Control Panel has been switched to old design(working on a new design)
Search has been re-enabled
BiddingPond "stores" coming soon.
Adjusted Payment Options for sellers(sellers can always choose another method not listed via "other" option):
- Bitcoin
- Bidding Pond Escrow
- Cash
- Check
- Liberty Reserve
- c-gold
- HD-Money
- Paypal
- Western Union
- MoneyGram
- Visa
- Mastercard
- American Express
- Bidding Pond Escrow
- Pecunix
- Other (see listing)
Started Payment framework(all payment options will have full automation where available)
See listing price in your selected currency! (currently debugging, will be turned on soon)

If anyone has any problems please contact us at contact@biddingpond.com