• Page sponsorships last three months. The associated bidding deadlines are:

  • January 1 through March 31
      Deadline: November 15 - 11:59 P.M. (PST)

  • April 1 through June 30
      Deadline: February 15 - 11:59 P.M. (PST)

  • July 1 through September 30
      Deadline: May 15 - 11:59 P.M. (PST)

  • October 1 through December 31
      Deadline: August 15 - 11:59 P.M. (PST)

• Page sponsorship is exclusive. We do not award any one page to more than one sponsor at a time. Banners always appear near the top of the page. They are are static. They stay on their page for the whole term. They do not rotate.

• Only registered sponsors may bid on page sponsorships. (Registration is free.)

• The minimum bid is $5.00 for three months of page sponsorship.

• The minimum bidding increment is $1.00 for each bid. All bids must be entered in whole dollars with no decimal point.

• ALL legitimate bids are accepted and recorded. Bids for ANY page do NOT have to exceed the minimum allowable bid ($5.00) regardless of the base price or high bid currently displayed for that page.

• In the extremely unlikely event of a double-tie (identical high bids recorded less than one second apart), the page(s) in question will be awarded to the sponsor with the earliest date of registration. Otherwise, the sponsor who made the bid carrying the earlier date/time stamp will prevail (first-come, first-serve).

• Bidding will not be allowed for the first 48 hours after after a deadline passes. This is to give us time to determine and notify winners and reset the database for the next quarter.

Bids are not retractable once they have been confirmed except in unusual circumstances such as when:

• An obvious typographical error is made.
• You receive a non-fatal error message because the page's status changed between the time you sent your bid and the time you confirmed it.

To retract such a bid you must:

• Request a retraction of the bid in question or it will automatically be considered binding.
• Send e-mail within 24 hours to greg@vinson.com. Use "Bid Error" as the subject.
• Come as close as you can to the time (including time zone) of the bid in question.
• Include the bid amount, page title (if possible), and of course, your password for verification.

We will make a prompt determination. Please bid with care. (The membership of any sponsor who abuses this policy may be suspended or terminated.)

• Winning bids will automatically be used as base prices for subsequent terms.

• NOTE: Remember that you can always enter a bid that is less than the base price listed for a page, as long as it is not less than $5.00 (the minimum bid for a single three-month page sponsorship). There are several reasons for this:

  • Nobody might offer the base price (thereby winning the page immediately if it is marked "Available")
  • The high bidder may fail to pay in time.
  • The winner might be found ineligible for sponsorship under our Terms and Conditions.

• These pages can be reserved immediately at any time by bidding the base price. Generally, your banner can be posted within a few days.

• The bidding menu shows either the base price or current high bid and all registered sponsors may bid on them for the following quarter.

• Shortly after the deadline, sponsors with winning bids will be notified via e-mail. Instructions for submitting their banner display and payment will be included.

• Reservations (base price bid for a page marked "Available") will be notified immediately after they occur. Generally, your banner display can be posted within a few days. Partial terms will be pro-rated, but not less than $5.00, our minimum billing amount in all cases

• The first time you win a bid or reserve a page, your eligibility for sponsorship will be verified. We may ask you for clarification or further information from you at that time.

• Payments must be postmarked within 7 days (including weekends and holidays) after receiving notification that you have been awarded a page.

• If a sponsor does not complete payment in time or is disqualified under our eligibility rules, the page(s) in question will:

  • be awarded to the next highest bidder
    OR
  • become "Available" again

    (wichever applies)

• There are no exceptions to these policies.

• We accept payments via PayPal as well as business and personal checks, money orders, and cashier's checks via regular mail.

• In the extremely unlikely event of a double-tie (identical high bids recorded less than one second apart), the page(s) in question will be awarded to the sponsor with the earliest date of registration. Otherwise, the sponsor who made the bid carrying the earlier date/time stamp will prevail (first-come, first-serve).

  PLANNED

• The server is shut down for a few minutes at 11:00 p.m. PST for routine maintainence and you will be unable to bid for those few minutes.

• Bids will not be accepted for the first 96 hours after after a deadline passes. This is to give us time to determine and notify winners and reset the database for the next quarter.

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• During peak traffic times, such as near the deadline, it is very possible for non-fatal errors to occur. See our help page for strategies to avoid them.

• Unplanned outages are an inconvenience to all concerned. When they occur, we ask that you be patient.

  • If the outage lasts more than one hour, you may e-mail us with a request that we inform you via e-mail when the outage has been corrected.

  • During unplanned outages lasting more than two hours, we will accept bids via e-mail.

    • You must send your bid from the address you registered under.
    • Include the title of the page you wish to bid on or reserve and the amount of your bid.
    • Please include your password for verification purposes.
    • Send your bid to greg@vinson.com with "Outage Bid" as the subject.

• If an unplanned outage occurs near a deadline due to high traffic volumes, we may extend that deadline at our discretion.

• These Bidding Rules are incorporated into and subject to our General Terms and Conditions which are available at http://www.GuideToBaedwork.com/sponsors/sponsorterms.html.