Bidding & Buying Details

There are several methods to buy on BidChip.

• Auction-style listings where you bid against other members.
• Buy It Now listings for buying something right away at a set price.
• Reverse auction-style listings where supplier bids to sell you at the lowest price.
• RFP, where you can request for price and convert one of the bidders into a seller.
• And a tender where the power buyers can post a BOM and select the best bidder as a seller.
• Make an offer to the seller.

Auction-style listing information

• In auction-style listings, the current bid and the time left in the auction are displayed.
• You can also see the bid history by scrolling down the page.
• Clicking on buyer review will pop up the buyers’ (bidders) profile and review.
• With the Buy It Now prices on an auction-style listing, you can purchase the item right away without waiting for the listing to end. For items that show both a bid price and a Buy It Now price, the Buy It Now option may disappear if a seller disables this option. The buyer can select this option and buy the component at the listing price.
• Make an offer- The seller can add this option and as a buyer, you can submit an offer. The seller can accept, reject or provide a counter offer. The buyer can accept or reject there is no negotiation process involved.
• Reverse auction- The buyer can post a reverse auction. Seller competes to offer the best price by cutting each other’s prices and lowering the price.

Color All auctions are presented in green, Reverse auction in Orange, RFP in red, and Tender in blue.

Fixed-price listings

For items that have a Buy It Now price only, there is no bidding and you can purchase the item right away by submitting buy now. The price will not include shipping; please add the shipping cost to it.

What is a reverse auction and when to post reverse auction:

• A reverse auction is a type of auction in which the roles of buyer and seller are reversed. In a reverse auction, the sellers compete to obtain business from the buyer and prices will typically decrease as the sellers undercut each other.
• When you are searching for a particular component you can either find it in any auction and bid on it, make an offer or buy it now. If you don’t find the component you are looking for, you can post a reverse auction. Sellers will start to bid on your post and decrease the price of the component.

How to post reverse auction:

1. Hover your mouse over My Account located on the top right corner of the site.
2. Click on post new reverse auction.

*The page is divided into 3 parts: the first part contains all the information about the component, the second part contains information about shipping, and the last part is about the specification and timing of the auction.

3. Fill the first part with all the component information.
   • Start price- This is the highest price seller will start to bid, the bid must be lower than the start price.
   • Reserve price: This is the highest price you commit to buy once the reserve price has been met; so you can start buying, and the price can go lower.
   • Buy Now Price: this must be lower than the reserve price. Adding buy now can limit the decreasing price; once buy now the price has been met, the seller cannot bid a lower price.
   • Only Buy Now: This is not an auction, it is a buy now opportunity with a fixed price on which the seller cannot bid.
   • Allow Offer: The seller can submit you an offer which you can accept reject or provide a counter offer. This is short: you have only once to counter offer. Seller, be smart; once you counteroffer, acceptance of the seller is will close the Reverse auction.
4. Second part: The user needs to fill all package information and include buyer participation in the shipping by selecting the box of “chip in shipping” or leave the box blank so the seller will carry all the shipping cost.
5. The last part includes information such as compliances restriction and, start and end date of the reverse auction.
6. Once all the details are filled, the buyer selects next and will be redirected to the reverse auction final review. Please review carefully and then post it once all the details are correct.
7. This post will be immediately available to thousands of potential sellers.

Make an Offer:

This option allows buyers to submit offers in an auction to buy the component at a specific price. The auctioneer can accept, reject or counter offer you as an initiation, the user can then accept the counteroffer or reject. Acceptance of the offer will be considered as winning the auction.

How to bid

Here’s how to bid on an item:

1. Sign in to the site.
2. Carefully review the listing.
3. Read all shipping instructions and calculate the shipping rate.
4. Click the Place Bid button.
5. Enter your maximum bid per piece, and then click theContinuebutton.
6. Review your bid, and then click the Confirm Bid button.
7. Components are sold in a block, not as a part of the entire quantity.

When the listing ends, you’ll receive an email indicating whether you’ve won the item and an explanation of what to do next.

Find components on BidChip

You can find almost everything on BidChip. Whether you have something specific in mind or you’re just looking around, thousands of new components are added every day. Still can’t find what you’re looking for? Post a reverse auction and reach out to thousands of suppliers who will bid to sell you at the lowest price.

• Browse- When you’re not exactly sure what you’re looking for, or when you just want to poke around in a particular category, like FPGA or passive. To browse, click on a category on the right side of the BidChip listing page.
• Search- When you’re looking for something in particular. Just enter a part number to describe the item in the Search box, which is at the top right corner of most BidChip pages.

listing page

The first part of the listing page displays general information about the item:

• Manufacturer LOGO, part number, and category.
• On the right side, you will see the price, no. of bids, quantity, and expiry time.

Once the user clicks on reading more or the logo, the full page of the auction will be presented.

You can also add the item to your watch list in this section.

• On the right side of the page, you can find information about the seller’s profile and review.
• At the bottom of the seller review, you can click on past auctions and see buyer reviews of this seller and all history of sold components.
• The second part of the listing page shows a detailed description of the item as well as additional shipping information. Review this information carefully to help make an informed buying decision.Description:
  • The Description section shows all item specifics, such as Manufacturer, quantity, Part no., and date. Some sellers also include shipping.
  • If you have any questions about the listing, click the Contact seller link at the bottom of the left section. It is prohibited to add any information that identifies you as a buyer or asking for seller information. This request will lead to automated suspension from the site with no refund.

Seller information

The Seller information section, found in the right section of the listing page, contains information to help you understand the seller and the seller’s reputation.

Click the seller’s review at the bottom of the section:

See an overview of the seller’s feedback in the last 12 months

Contact the seller from the left side of the auction.

Click the seller’s Feedback score (from the bottom right side of the seller detail) to see:

• Recent Feedback ratings
• Detailed seller ratings
• Feedback comments left for the seller
• Feedback comments the seller left for buyers

Learn more about how Feedback works.

Learn more about how you can get to know your seller.

Bid history and bidder search

To keep certain info private, we limit how to bid history information is displayed. When the highest bid, reserve price, or Buy It Now price reaches or exceeds a certain level, members can’t view or search for member-specific information, such as user IDs on the Bid History page. Though the Bid History: Details page has information on bidders, each bidder is assigned an anonymous name (x***y, for example).

BidChip provides a way to rate your seller or buyer. Looking for seller reviews will help you as a buyer to decide whether or not to bid, make an offer or buy from this seller. This set of tools can be found either on the right side of the screen or at the bottom of the auction page. You can find all the bidders that participate; and by clicking on them, a pop-up screen will appear with all sellers’ reviews.

Changing or retracting your bid

As a general rule, you can’t retract or cancel a bid on BidChip.