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A Users Guide to Smokoo
In order to get started with an auction you must first buy credits. Credits are available in a variety of packages and the cost of an individual credit is displayed on the purchase page.
During a basic auction, every bid placed results in the item price increasing between 1c while the countdown to the finish is extended by up to 60 seconds.
Auction Categories
Almost all Smokoo auctions are categorised into three categories to ensure fairness to auction participants. Customers, who secure the maximum number of auctions within a category in 30 days, will automatically be restricted from participating in further upcoming auctions, in that category, for 30 days after the most recent successful auction purchase.
The auction category is denoted by a chalice/ trophy of corresponding colour in the auction information. The limits for auction wins are:
Gold - 1 Auctions
Silver - 2 Auctions
Bronze - 15 Auctions
Types of Auction
Understanding how the bidding works and following solid strategies can help you to secure more auctions. Strategies will vary according to the type of auction you are competing in. Smokoo offers shoppers the choice of six types of auction:
 Variable Credits Auctions
Variable Credits Auctions are high-value items on auction and the cost of each bid is more than 1 credit. The number of credits per bid will be indicated on the auction detail view.
 Convert-to-Credits
Items won on auctions that display the Convert-to-Credits icon can be converted to credits based on the retail value of the item. Only auctions that display the Convert-to-Credits icon can be converted to credits.
 Smokoo Buy Now Deals
Smokoo Buy Now Deals
Shoppers will need to have a registered Smokoo account to participate in a BUY NOW Deals auction. All orders are subject to successful verification of your registered Smokoo account.
BUY NOW auctions are represented by the Red Shopping basket symbol.
Shoppers can choose to bid to secure the item on auction and/ or use the BUY NOW option to purchase the item at the advertised retail price.
The BUY NOW option is available from when the auction is created on the Site and for up to 24 hours only, after the auction has Finished. The BUY NOW option is available only once during the auction per shopper.
Shoppers may choose the use the BUY NOW option to purchase the item and continue to take part in the auction to also secure the item on auction. Credits you have already used to place bids on the auction, will be deducted from the final price you pay at the time you use the BUY NOW option.
All payments must be made through one of the available payment options provided on the Site.
The Final Sale Price of the auction must reach a minimum percentage of the advertised retail price for the final bidder to receive the item/ voucher on auction. This percentage will be advised on the auction details. Auctions that do not reach the minimum percentage of the Final Sale price required, will be cancelled 24 hours after the auction and credits used in the auction returned to the participating shoppers accounts.
In the event that an auction is cancelled, credits not used by shoppers on the BUY NOW option will be returned to their Smokoo account. All shoppers who have used the BUY NOW option, their orders will still be honoured with the supplier, pending successful verification of your Smokoo account. The Final Bidder will receive 150% of the credits used in the auction back to their Smokoo account, except where credits have already been used on the BUY NOW option.
Products/ Services purchased on a BUY NOW option may only be available in certain geographical locations and it is the shoppers responsibility to ensure you are able to access the products/ services in the specified location.. Shoppers will be liable for all eventual shipping and customs fees. Warranties on products/ services are provided by the suppliers and shoppers will need to contact the relevant supplier directly in the event of any claim.
When you have completed your order, you will need to contact support to complete the verification of your Smokoo account before details of the seller will be passed onto you.
PURCHASE: A purchase of a Smokoo BUY NOW Deal can be redeemed with the merchant within the specified period only as advised on the Buy Now auction details. EACH DEAL IS LIMITED AND ACCORDINGLY, WILL BE SOLD ON A “FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED” BASIS. Should the supplier not have sufficient stock available to honour the purchase, Smokoo will credit your Smokoo account with credits for the retail price paid.
CANCELLATION: Once you receive your order invoice by e-mail, you may cancel the order at any time within 7 working days from the day after the day you receive the e-mail (where a working day is any day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday recognised in South Africa). Any request to cancel, must be sent by e-mail to support@smokoo.com and sent from your Smokoo registered e-mail address (the same e-mail address the order invoice has been issued to), always provide that you have not redeemed your Buy Now deal. On cancelation, the purchase price paid, including any shipping costs will be refunded as credits to your Smokoo account.
REDEMPTION: Once your Smokoo account has been successfully verified, you will be provided with the Merchants contact details. Shoppers will be responsible for contacting the Merchant directly to receive their product/ services purchased within the specified period, using the Invoice Date, Invoice Reference and Payment Reference number provided in your order confirmation e-mail. You may only redeem your BUY NOW deal order once. Any attempted redemption of a BUY NOW deal order not consistent with these terms and conditions, may render a BUY NOW deal order void at our (or a Merchant’s) discretion.
RESPONSIBILITY: The Merchant and not Smokoo, is the seller of the product / services and solely responsible for providing you with the Product/ Services themselves, and for redeeming any BUY NOW deal you purchase within the specified period.
RESTRICTIONS: Reproduction, sale, resale or trade of a Smokoo BUY NOW Deal order is prohibited. Any attempt to carry out any of these will void the Smokoo BUY NOW Deal order. If the Smokoo BUY NOW Deal order is redeemed for less than the value of purchase, there is no entitlement to a credit or cash difference between the value paid and the amount redeemed. Smokoo BUY NOW Deal orders are redeemable in their entirety only and may not be redeemed incrementally.
COMBINATION: It is at the discretion of the Merchant to determine whether Smokoo BUY NOW Deal orders can be combined with any other Smokoo BUY NOW deal order, or other promotions, vouchers, third party certificates or coupons. Smokoo BUY NOW deal orders may not be applied to cover shipping or handling charges which may be incurred when the Smokoo BUY NOW deal order is redeemed for a Product.
LOSS/ THEFT SMOKOO BUY NOW DEAL ORDER: Neither we nor the Merchant are responsible for lost or theft of Smokoo BUY NOW deals orders or the information contained within the e-mail received.
EXPIRY OF SMOKOO BUY NOW DEALS ORDERS: In respect of traditional Smokoo BUY NOW deals orders- The Specified Period (including, but not limited to, any discounts provided by the Smokoo BUY NOW deals order) expires on the date specified on the auction details. After the expiry date of the Specified Period, we will credit your Smokoo account with the consideration paid in respect of the Purchase, if you ask us to.
In respect of Smokoo BUY NOW deals orders which are redeemable for a ticket or admission to a specific ticketed event – Smokoo BUY NOW deals orders shall have no value once the specific event date and time has passed. Smokoo BUY NOW deals order are only refundable as credits ONLY
(i) by request until midnight on the day of purchase;
(ii) automatically if the event is cancelled and not rescheduled, and
(iii) upon request if event is rescheduled.
We have instituted this application procedure to minimise events of fraud.
STATUS OF SMOKOO BUY NOW DEALS ORDERS: All Smokoo BUY NOW deals orders are promotional deals that are offered for Purchase below Deal Value and are subject to this Agreement and to any terms and conditions of the relevant Merchant.
MERCHANT TERMS: Merchants will have their own applicable terms and conditions, in relation to their own supply of their goods and services, and you agree to (and shall) abide by those terms and conditions. The responsibility to do so is yours alone.
CONTENT ON THE WEBSITE AND SERVICE AND SMOKOO BUY NOW DEALS: It is your responsibility to ensure that any products, services or information available through the Website or the Service meet your specific requirements.
The AutoBidder
This is very useful to bidders who may need to take a break during an auction but don’t wish to forfeit the auction. The AutoBidder allows a bidder to set the starting price at which automatic bids should initiate and the number of bids (which may be more than 1 credit) he or she is willing to place. The bidder may then depart and the AutoBidder will just carry out his or her instructions.
There are certain rules governing the use of the AutoBidder.
• You must load at least two bids
• You may only use one AutoBidder at a time for each auction in which you wish to participate
• The starting/ initiation price must be at least 2 bids more than the current item price
• You may load no more than 100,000 bids
• You can cancel your AutoBidder at any time by navigating to "My Account" and "BidButler" and selecting either "Stop" or "Remove"
Countdown Timers
The start and finish of each auction is controlled by a countdown timer. During auctions, the remaining countdown time may be increased slightly when someone places a bid. All auctions have an average 24 hour countdown and new bids will add between 1 and 20 seconds to this timer. These small extensions of the countdown allow other bidders the opportunity to counter-bid.
Smokoo reserves the right to increase this time limit on certain auctions.
Big ticket items (i.e. those of a considerable retail value) may have different time shifts. For more information on a specific auction, please contact our Support Team.
Some Basic Bidding Strategies
Practice on smaller Items first:
Get you practice bidding for small ticket items to begin with. Obviously the big ticket items such as flat screen TVs attract a lot of bidders and you will need more skill to win in these auctions. Cheaper items draw fewer bidders and provide an excellent opportunity to get the hang of things.
Look out for a Rookie Auction:
These are strictly for bidders who have never won before and will provide you with a good opportunity to make your first winning bid. The confidence you gain will help you graduate to bigger items.
There’s no rush:
If you are not too confident, take time out to go through all of the information and tutorials on the site and then watch some actual auctions in progress. You will soon begin to see how others do it.
Even when you see an item you want to bid for, take a while to watch the action. Check out the bidders and how much they’re bidding. If, after having reviewed the closed auctions for the item you are keen on bidding on, you will have an idea of how much the item normally fetches and then you should be able to judge the best time to join in.
Leave yourself enough time:
If you have other things to do, it is probably not a good time to start bidding, Although many auctions end quite quickly some can go on for a much longer period. If you are serious about winning an item rather ensure that you have enough free time to go the distance.
One item at a time:
You may be tempted by all of the great items on offer but they will all become available again at some stage so don’t be tempted to bid on several items at once. Not only can the practice cause confusion, it’s also a good way to run out of bids when you most need them.
Check who is bidding:
The auction page will show you details the last 10 bids placed. From this you can get a good idea of who is bidding, how often they bid and whether they seem to be following any sort of strategy. If there are a lot of recent bidders it may be better to look for something less competitive. Don’t rely on the latest bids alone, it’s important to see how active the bidders actually are.
Try to bid as late as you can:
Everyone wants a bargain and some of the bidders that have been battling it out for an hour or so could be running short of bids and while there’s an hour to spare, there’s plenty of time for them to buy more. That’s precisely why you should try to leave you bid for the last 10 seconds. That should still be enough to upload and store your bid to our system. Try not to leave your bid too late as a slow or busy connection at your end could mean internet lag may mean your bid is not uploaded in time to beat the countdown.
Make Use of the AutoBidder:
You will notice that auctions are often won by bidders using the AutoBidder. On occasions you may even see two or more Autobidders competing. The AutoBidder is there to support you. It will only perform the instructions you give it. The AutoBidder will bid according to a preset pattern and, if you are placing manual bids, this gives you the opportunity to learn its strategy and modify you bids accordingly.
The AutoBidder can work for you also. Timing its use just right can be an effective way to frighten other bidders away. Try to avoid setting your upper bid limit to a round number as other bidders tend to expect this and can figure out when your last bid has been placed.
Note: In our “fast and furious” auctions the AutoBidder function is inactive, so it’s live action all the way!
Set your price limit and stick to it:
If you have ever been to a traditional auction you will know that it is easy to get caught up in the “auction fever” and spend more than you intended to. Remember, each bid is costing you R5 and you will still need to add the item price and delivery charges. Decide what the item is worth to you and make that your limit.
Be sure not to run out of bids:
If you know that you risk running out of bids, be sure to replenish them before you enter an auction. You could lose out while you are busy topping up you bids in mid-action. Consider buying the one of the larger bid packages to be on the safe side.
Keep Focussed:
Try to avoid distractions during an auction. It is probably a good idea to turn off the radio and exit your favourite PC game. While you are taking your eyes of the bidding, somebody else could grab that flat-screen TV.
Earn yourself some free credits:
There are several ways to do this. You could refer a friend and collect some free bids when they buy their first bid package. Look out for our specials too. Free bids come in handy when you have exceeded you planned limit but believe you could still win with just another bid or two.
Optimize your PC’s performance:
If your PC is not operating at its best, it could result in internet lag and loss of late bids so switch off all those functions that drain your computer’s memory and processing power. These include graphics programmes, games, multimedia programmes such as DVD players and any other programme that may be competing with your browser for your Internet connection.
Strategies for the More Experienced
Be a Sniper:
Bidding at the last minute has long been known as sniping but in a Smokoo auction, almost all bids are placed in the last 20 seconds so sniping takes on a new meaning. In these circumstances it really means holding back as long as you dare until you are certain that the remaining bidders are approaching their limits. Starting to bid this late means you will use fewer bids and this offsets the fact that the item price may be a little higher than earlier.
Show some aggression:
You will need confidence to pull this off effectively as it does carry an element of risk. The idea is to appear as if you have bids to spare and are determined to win. Chose an auction with few bidders and no AutoBidders, then counter each bid immediately without waiting until the last few seconds. This will often frighten off the competition quite quickly but it could also spark a fight to the finish so there are no guarantees.
Sniff out your opposition with the Autobidder:
You want to avoid battling against another AutoBidder if possible as you will simply exhaust your bids and lose ground. It is better to “test the water” by loading a few bids within a limited price range. If you are tackled by another AutoBidder, let your bids run out and leave it to a manual bidder to do battle while you watch. When you see the AutoBidder is no longer active you can revert to sniping.
If you initial test picks up no competing AutoBidder, then you can go ahead and place your maximum bets in an attempt to scare off any new bidders.
Please be aware that the advice given above, although based upon actual experience of pay-to-bid auctions gathered over a considerable period, Smokoo.com wishes to stress that following this advice neither offers nor implies any guarantee of success.
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