Opening Bids: StampAuctionNetwork® provides you with dynamically calculated Opening Bids. An opening bid is the amount the lot is currently selling for. In most cases, it is calculated to be an increment above the next highest bid. If your bid is above the opening, you should see your bid in Green indicating that you are winning the bid. If your bid is at the opening and it is not Green, it is because you are the tie bidder and the other bidders' bid was entered before yours. Bids entered below the opening are accepted. If the high bidder is a OR Bidder, and they had won a lot tied as an OR bid to this one, that bid will be cancelled and the opening recalculated as if the original bid was not there. So in some cases, you could be the underbidder on a lot and still win the lot. In some cases, other bids may be rejected or lowered by the auction firm. In other cases, consignors may be convinced to lower their reserves. Allowing bids to be entered below the opening also prevents some types of bidder collusion occasionally found at other Internet auction sites.

Dynamic Bidding: Most of the Auction Firms here at StampAuctionNetwork receive bids by telephone, mail or at Public Auction. Those bids are entered into their office Auction Management Systems. Here at StampAuctionNetwork®, you are bidding interactively against other Internet Bidders. When you bid against another Internet bidder, or if they bid against you, the change in the opening bid will be immediate. You are also bidding against the bids entered in the office Auction Management System, however, those bids are not reflected until they are transferred to StampAuctionNetwork®. There can be some delay, if for instance, you send bids to the auction firm by mail, before they appear at StampAuctionNetwork®. Similarly, if you enter bids via StampAuctionNetwork®, and then call the auction firm, your bids may not have reached the auction firm by the time you call them. This transfer of bidding information between StampAuctionNetwork® and the auction firms' Auction Management System happens very regularly and when close to auction closing time, almost real-time.

Entering "OR" Bids: In many cases, you may want to bid on one or more items, yet if successful, only win one of them. OR Bidding allows you to do this. You indicate an OR bid by placing the same identifier (usually a letter) in the OR input box for each bid that comprises the OR bid group. For instance if you wanted to win either Lot 23 or 24 but not both, you might enter "A" in the OR input box for each of the lots 23 and 24. You may make an OR group bid on as many lots as desired. If you need more groups, use another letter, for instance use "B" to enter an OR bid on lots 30, 31, and 35. OR bids are generally executed in Lot number order.

"Pending Final Auction Results" If your bid is in Green and there is a "Pending Final Auction Results" message, it means that you were the high bidder when the auction was closed to Internet bidding. SAN is waiting for the auction firm to post prices realized before it can notify you whether you won or lost the lot in question. Bid amounts in Red indicate either that you are not the high bidder or that SAN can not determine whether or not you are the high bidder. Until the auction firm posts prices realized, SAN can not be certain whether you have won the lot or not. Other high bids could have dropped due to limit or "OR" bids. Floor bidders can beat out SAN bidders. In some cases, busy auction firms do not get last minute bids entered via SAN. When prices realized are posted, most auction firms post the identity of the winner bidder internally to SAN so that SAN can correctly identify you as the winning bidder. Some auction firms do not post the winning bidder, in those cases, your bid may be higher than the realized the price realized or opening and yet SAN can not determine that you were the winner. When SAN can not determine absolutely that you are the winner, it will still show in red.