Ah, the old-fashioned country auction! The idea of a country auction conjures up certain images for people. The image of a fast-talking auctioneer offering up an antique table or chair is a popular example.

People who are buying household goods or collectibles are looking to get their items at the lowest price possible. However, the people who are selling their items at auction are hoping for the highest price!

Unless a person is in the business of buying and selling antiques or other items, not a lot of thought goes into how goods are prepared for sale via the auction process. However, if you are one of the growing number of people using auction venues to sell your collectibles or other inventory, there are a few things to learn first about how to sell at auction before you bring a truckload of stuff over to the next event.

Tip 1: Make sure the things you want to sell are a good “fit” for the auction house you’ll be using.

Never bring a load to an auction house without actually having been to one of the previous auctions. It’s important to get a feel for the type of goods that the house sells. For example, at one very rural country auction it was common for the owners to sell live chickens, pots and pans, car parts, and farm equipment.

After close investigation, this would not be the right venue for selling your daughter’s “Hello Kitty” collection. On the other hand, the spare John Deere parts that you bought at last week’s yard sale might be just the right thing for the buying crowd at this auction.

Tip 2: Be sure you clearly understand the terms and policies of the auction house.

Visit with the auctioneer ahead of time. Call to find out what the best days and times are to visit. One of the worst possible times to drop in for an informational visit with an auctioneer is the day of the auction. Call ahead and ask. While you’re at it, find out what are the best days and times to drop your stuff off.

Once you have a little time with the auctioneer, you’ll be able to find out what type of commission he or she takes from consigners (which is you), and what type of paperwork might be needed. Some auction houses send out Form 1099 tax forms at the end of the year. An auctioneer may need to see your identification and have you fill out a W-9. Be prepared.

Find out what happens to your items if they don’t sell. For example, some auctioneers may have a minimum starting bid. If, for some reason, one of your items does not sell, it may be grouped with another one of your pieces. Know the auctioneer’s strategy beforehand so that you aren’t surprised on pay day.

Tip 3: Make sure the auctioneer knows what you’re selling.

It might be perfectly obvious to you that the signed print you are consigning is a rare and valuable piece of art. However, the auctioneer may not know this particular artist. Make a note of anything particularly special about your items, and leave the note with the piece. Be sure to tell the auctioneer about it as well. He or she might determine that this is something to highlight on the company website or in the newspaper listing.

Tip 4: Present your items neatly.

No one likes to have to dig through a box full of grimy and greasy car parts to see what treasures might be in there. Separate the parts and lay them out on a flat, or use more than one box to de-clutter the lot.

There is no need to buy fancy display boxes. It’s easy enough to go to the local convenience store or supermarket and ask if you can have the emptied boxes or flats that they are discarding.

While it’s good to present clean items, take care not to ruin the value of anything by over cleaning. For example, if you find some old cast iron cookware, clean the obvious dirt and grime, but don’t scrub it to its original finish. For many people, this ruins the value of the item. So, clean and tidy and organized is the key here.

Tip 5: Don’t complain to the auctioneer if your stuff doesn’t sell for as much as you’d like.

The phrase to remember here is, “You win some; you lose some.” That’s just the way it is. There are some days where an auction house is loaded with people who all seem to want what you’re selling. There will be other days where the crowd is sparse, and the bidding is simply not competitive.

Remember that it’s in the auctioneer’s best interest to sell your things for the highest possible hammer price. But sometimes, it’s just not going to be a stellar sale. The auctioneer is only human, and is also disappointed if a sale doesn’t go as well as planned.

If you notice that every time you bring a bunch of goods to sell that you’re not realizing as much as you think you honestly should, try another auction venue and compare apples to apples. That is, bring the same types of items to the new auctioneer and compare the results.

Unless the auctioneer is particularly disagreeable or inconsiderate to you or buyers, there is no reason to confront him or her about a sale. If you find you just don’t care for an auctioneer’s style or methods, find another one. Believe me, there are plenty of them out there!

The primary thing to remember as you learn how to sell at auction is that the business is unpredictable at best. You will have good days, some not-so-good days, some great days. The more you sell, the more experience you will gain, and the more enjoyable the business will be.

Many small businesses don’t have an IT department or anyone experienced enough to handle even basic IT tasks like backup, system restoration, patching or updates. In most cases, they rely on a local business partner (typically an IT consultant or local IT support company) to handle these tasks.

Unfortunately, many small business IT solutions on the market today exacerbate the situation. Their complexity…

requires the need for ever more powerful hardware
results in frequent system crashes and downtime for upgrades
compounds security problems
necessitates frequent system restorations
increases the investment in resource to upgrade systems and fix problems
Whats needed is a new generation of ‘small business servers’ that deliver all of the essential IT & technology services for smaller businesses but without the usual costs or hassle.

Challenges in supporting micro and small business customers

To stay in business small businesses need help with basic IT chores, which are becoming more mission critical than ever as they grow more time consuming to deliver.

Just look at business continuity and disaster recovery in small businesses. A study by Gartner found that only one third of small businesses surveyed said they were prepared for a disaster within the next 12 months.

In other words two thirds of all small businesses are not prepared for a disaster or protected. The reason, in most cases, is that small businesses don’t have the IT skills of solutions to perform common tasks like backing up critical data or developing a way to restore systems that crash or become damaged when a pipe breaks or there is a fire, flood or other disaster.

Small businesses also need help just backing up and restoring files when someone accidentally deletes them. Such deletions in small businesses are quite common.

Whilst everyone understands the need for data to be backed up, what many don’t realise is how expensive and difficult it actually is with traditional solutions. In fact, the traditional approach to backing up data is a time consuming and resource intensive task. The normal procedure requires tapes to be rotated, in the right order and taken off site for secure storage.

Plug In, Switch on & Start Working

Security within smaller businesses is also an issue. Hackers today are after confidential information about businesses and their clients to commit fraud and identify theft. They employ increasingly sophisticated attacks that may use socially engineered phishing email messages. These spam messages are designed to fool even savvy computer users in to thinking they are from legitimate sources. An unsuspecting user might click on malicious executable file or URL link to a poisoned web site and automatically download malicious software.

In their pursuits hackers increasingly exploit new vulnerabilities in applications and Windows operating systems as a means of infecting computers. To battle this problem, software vendors issue frequent system updates and security patches that must be installed quickly to minimize exposure to each new threat.

In 2008, Microsoft alone issues 43 critical, 24 important and two moderate fixes, according to security experts. The previous year saw a similar amount, including 49 critical, 23 important and five moderate updates. Other application and browser vendors had numerous updates as well.

Again, many small businesses don’t have the IT expertise to track all of these patches or the time to install them. Beyond security patches, there are typically many operating system updates that must also be applied. Such installations are often time consuming.

Unfortunately many of these fixes incur downtime, which no business likes. For example, in many situations, a business must first test a patch or upgrade to be sure it does not cause problems. If the test goes well, planning must take place to be sure the changes are made at a time that least inconveniences its workers. Again, many businesses are looking for help with these matters from their business partners. The challenge for the business partner is that all of these tasks (testing, planning, applying etc.) are all time and labour intensive.

Problems with traditional Small Business Server Solutions

Even the smallest business today requires certain basic capabilities. Workers need to share files and printers. Additionally, their data must be protected and their systems must be secure.

The burden on the business partner to provide these services typically requires the use of multiple solutions from different vendors. The mix often includes a server OS and file system from one vendor, backup software from another, and security products including firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-spam software etc from even more vendors.

Managing such a mix can add to a business partner’s workload. Each product must be managed with its own administrative system, and each must be updated on its own. There might also be conflicts when trying to get different vendors products to work together.

Additionally supporting such a mix of applications might introduce security issues. For example, if a firewall and anti-spam solution are not in sync with regard to the level of protection each affords, one might work in detriment of the other.

The end result when using multiple solutions is that the time investment per client grows as the complexity increases. It also increases the time investment a business partner must make in learning/training. Their staff must be knowledgeable about many discreet products in order to support their small business client’s workers.

Compounding matters, the traditional choices have had their problems. Solutions designed specifically for smaller businesses often could not scale to support a business growth. For this reason, many of the solutions commonly used are not designed specifically for small businesses. But this only adds to the management burden placed on the business partner because they must customize or scale down these solutions to meet the needs of small businesses.

Additionally, such solutions are often bloated with features not needed in smaller businesses. For instance, directory services might be overkill for a company with fewer than twenty people. Yet, its administration is as time consuming for twenty as it is for one hundred or more.

Similarly, an enterprise solution might be so narrow focused that it lacks key features for small business, thus requiring a patch work of solutions to meet a business’s basic needs. For instance, a firewall might need a third party anti-spam or anti-virus solution to provide more complete protection.

In either case, trying to force fit an enterprise solution into a small business environment can add to the management workload.

What’s needed: Desirable characteristics?

With these concerns in mind, there is obviously a need for an alternative to the enterprise patchwork solutions that are currently being cobbled together and used in small business today.

Any solution that addresses these pain points must be designed specifically for small businesses and the business partners who serve them. It must enable customers do email, create and share documents, centrally manage files, store and secure business data, control access to information, connect offices, employees and partners whilst protecting their network and systems from unwanted disruptions and intrusions.

It should be less complex so that it requires less IT support than traditional solutions. Additionally the solution should be Linux based. The reason: Linux is stable and reliable. This would simplify management and make solution subject to less downtime than some alternative solutions. Additionally being Linux based reduces many security problems, as far fewer attacks, generally speaking, are aimed at Linux than traditional operating systems.

Furthermore, most operating systems are packed with drivers, utilities and services that are seldom used. An ideal solution would only use the parts of the Linux Kernel that are needed to perform the desired functions. This would reduce potential vulnerabilities.

To simplify matters further, the solution should be very easy to deploy. For example, it should be offered as a simple plug and play solution in the form of an appliance. And the solution should support remote management to troubleshoot and correct small problems, as well as recover from a system crash.

A solution with these characteristics will save a business partner valuable time that would otherwise be needed to administer solutions at every client’s site. This saves time and money. It allows a business provider to provide services in a more economically efficient manner to existing customers. And it frees up time to solicit and support new businesses.

Enter: An affordable solution designed specifically for small businesses

Small Business Server Appliances are a new breed of Small Business Server Solution they are delivered delivered as a plug and play hardware appliance, everything is included. Its pricing structure is simple and straight forward. Business partners do not have to deal with multiple and complex licensing agreements as is the case with many alternative offerings where you are required to switch platforms (or upgrade hardware) above 75 and 100 users, or when email and data storage requirements reach a certain limit.

Small Business Server Appliances offers file and print sharing; firewall, anti-virus, anti-spam protection; email, calendaring, contacts, tasks; secure remote access; data backup and disaster recovery features; office productivity tools; and automated system updates.

Everything is included within the appliance as a single solution. And business partners can use the platform to deploy other applications that a client might need.

The high performance appliance hardware allows a powerful solution to be delivered in a small footprint. This also provides the ability to scale solutions as a clients business grows up to 500 users without artificial licensing barriers. Furthermore, the appliance format also makes the solution very easy to deploy, typically it can be up and running in about 20 minutes.

Setting the solution apart: Autonomic features and benefits

Small Business Server Appliances are designed to run on their own at a customer’s site with little intervention from the business partner. To accomplish this we make use of autonomic features that automatically handle many routine tasks and can correct many problems on its own as they arise. These autonomic features ensure that the small business stays up and running and its systems and data are protected, all while off loading time consuming IT tasks from business partners.

For example Small Business Server Appliances comes pre built and pre configured and can usually be implemented in around twenty minutes. There is no monitor or keyboard, the admin interface is accessed via an IP address securely through HTTPS which enables you to manage the appliance remotely. In contrast, alternative solutions often require the business partner to load 5 to 15 CD’s to get a system running initially.

Small Business Server Appliances also has the ability to self manage automated backups to a disc based storage device (on or off site), to a hosted backup service in addition to traditional tape or USB based storage devices. A few Small Business Server Appliances also provide the option for integrated hot swap backup discs to be used which enable data to be backed up continually throughout the day.

Summary

With Small Business Server Appliances, business partners get an easy to implement and easy to manage solution that has specifically been designed for smaller businesses.

Small Business Server Appliances come pre built and ready to be used this solution offers a rapid time to value.

All of the attributes of Small Business Server Appliances pay dividends twice over. First, the small business client is happy, because they can do their jobs without computer related interruptions. And second, a business partner can deliver a high level of service while dedicating minimal IT resources and staff to each client.

The autonomic features of the solution reduce the time and resources a business partner must invest to begin work with a new client and to support existing small business customers. For example very little training is required to become familiar with the solution, so business partners quickly leverage the solution and immediately become more profitable.

WHAT IS A PENNY AUCTION?

Penny auctions have exploded in popularity with the massive growth of the internet. However, few people know the true origins of penny auctions.Beginnings actually stretch back to the Great Depression. Those were hard times for everyone, but even harder for farmers. Farmers struggled to bring in steady income because of droughts and crops not selling as well as they had previously. As a result, the banks would foreclose on the farmers who couldn’t keep up with their mortgage payments.

The banks weren’t satisfied with just repossessing the house, they wanted to raise as much capital as possible, so they resorted to selling off the possessions of the owners of the repossessed houses. There was not much the farmers could do about it so they began bidding ridiculously low prices, pennies, on the items while threatening others who dared to bid higher than a few pennies.

The auctions of today hardly resemble their tremulous beginnings. Being part of a penny auction today is exhilarating, fun, and addictive. It combines the selling format of auctioning with a little bit of chance factored in.Auctions are a game of strategy but also a game of luck.

The premise behind penny auctions is giving people the chance to win an item at a drastically reduced price.Auctions make that possible by spreading out the cost of the product among multiple bidders. In order for a person to take part in an auction, they must pay a set price for each bid. For example, if a person wanted to bid on a fifty dollar Amazon gift card then he would spend a dollar for each time a bid placed. If he ended up winning the gift card, then he would only have spent a few dollars for a fifty dollar gift card. Usually penny auctions sell bids in packages.

HOW PENNY AUCTIONS WORK!

The main foundation of penny auctions is the pay-per-bid format. It is the key that allows bidders to win items at the fraction of their retail value and allows the auction owners to keep their site profitable. Most y auction sites run on the same premise: people pay a set amount for each bid, whenever a person places a bid within the closing seconds of the auction time will be added, the last person left with a unique bid after the clocks runs out will win the item. There are a large variety of items that can be won, but they tend to be popular electronics or gift cards to popular stores.

There are two types of auctions: lowest unique bid auction and highest unique bid auction. Lowest unique auction sounds confusing but it is actually quite simple. A unique bid is when only one person has a bid at a certain price. Bids usually start at one penny, a bidder can then place a bid at two pennies. Until another bidder places a higher bid, the most recent bidder will be the lowest unique bid because that was the only bid at two cents and nobody bid higher. However, penny auctions generally don’t stop at one penny. It is not uncommon to find auctions that end up at a couple hundred dollars based on the popularity of the item being auctioned. However, the same principles apply for those auctions. Highest unique bid auctions follow the more traditional auction format such as eBay. The person with the highest bid at the end of the auction wins the item.

Auction site owners turn a profit by selling bids. Say twenty people are bidding on a ten dollar gift card at one dollar per bid, at the end of the auction if there were twenty bids placed in total then the site owner would have made twenty dollars with a ten dollar profit.Auctions do seem like a win-win situation:The site owner makes money while the bidder gets an item for dirt cheap. However, not everyone wins in penny auctions. The people who paid one dollar each bid but left with nothing to show for their investments will not be so happy.

HOW TO WIN!

Penny auction has a lot of chance mixed into it, but one can incorporate strategy that will help raise the chances of winning. Playing smart can make all the difference between gambling and auctioning.

The first crucial tip to winning penny auctions is to know how to manage your bids. Your goal should be to win as much as possible without spending a ton of money buying bids. Managing your bids means that you should already know how much you are willing to risk in order to win an item. The amount of capital you are willing to risk will determine how many bids you can use. Once you know how many bids you have to spend on an item, then you will be better able to manage how and when you place a bid. That will keep you from blowing away all of your bids in the first few seconds of the auction.

The next tip is to practice time management. When fighting in the trenches of penny auctions, you have two enemies: other bidders and time. Knowing when to bid is a must if you want to have success. Placing a bid when there is a lot of time left on the clock is never a good idea. You have to remember that the key to winning a penny auction is being the last one standing when the clock runs out and that each bid increases the amount of time left. It would be a good practice to wait until the last few minutes of the auction before you begin to bid.

The final tip for successful auctioning is to keep your emotions under control.Auctions have a lot of similarities to gambling, and just like gambling, your spending can get out of control. If you keep your emotions level, it will keep you from making rash decisions and blowing loads of cash. Keep your mind clear so that you can gage the behavior of the other bidders and outsmart them.

HOW TO AVOID SCAM SITES!

Penny auctions are a great addition to the web whether you want to win an item that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford or if you simply enjoy the thrill that comes with bidding in auctions. Unfortunately, scam sites have tarnished the reputation of the legitimate penny auction sites. However, there are ways that you can protect yourself from scamers and enjoy your auctioning without having to worry about losing your money due to dishonesty.

Checking the reputation of the auction site before you start spending your hard earned money is always a good idea. Chances are other people have tried the site before you and some of them have left reviews. The reviews are your way to gage whether a auction site is trustworthy or not. If a site is getting overwhelmingly negative reviews, then that is a clear indication that you should steer your business elsewhere.

Another tool you can use to protect yourself is checking the Alexia ranks of the auction sites. Alexia rank will give a solid view of how much traffic the auction is getting. If you see a huge difference in the amount of traffic Alexia is projecting and the amount of active bidders on the site, then warning signals should be ringing in your head. Some auction sites have been known to set up robots that automatically bid on projects in order to keep the auction going and inflate the price. That is known as shill bidding. You can sniff out those sites by comparing the traffic the site should be getting to the amount of users using this site.

CONCLUSION!

New legislation may come out later down the road that will officially make penny auctions gambling, but until then, it is a fun, exciting auction that allows one to win the item they’ve always wanted but couldn’t afford.Auctions are also quite lucrative for the site owners because of the pay-per-bid strategy they’ve incorporated. Penny auctions had humble beginnings with farmers who just wanted to get back at the banks who kicked them out of their house. More recently, auctions have enjoyed an explosion in popularity with the rise of the internet.

There are two main formats fora auctions, lowest and highest unique auction, however they both run on the same premise where the last unique bid wins the item. Winning a penny auction will require a certain amount of mental tactic and a bit of luck. However, you can increase your odds of winning by practicing certain techniques such as managing your bids wisely, learning how to work with the time, and keeping a level head and your emotions under control. When you combine those three strategies to your bidding plan, you will find that you win a lot more often.

It is important that you do your due diligence to protect yourself when participating in auctions. Not every auction is run by honest and trustworthy people. There are people out there who just want to take your money. You can protect yourself by ensuring that you only bid on sites that already have a very positive reputation from real users.