PBA Galleries Site Features Explained

Welcome to PBA Galleries! Here is some information about our website that will help you use the site to the fullest extent to find the books that match your interests.

Auctions at PBA Galleries:

There are two types of auctions at PBA Galleries - Live Auctions (designated on the site by the color green) and Online Auctions (designated by the color orange). Both types of auction are fully accessible for bidding from the website, though each has its own set of guidelines and features.

Live Auctions 
Live auctions occur generally every two weeks, ordinarily on Thursdays at 1 PM PST. The auctions are held at the gallery, at 133 Kearny St. in San Francisco. While many buyers choose to attend the auctions in person, increasing numbers of customers are choosing to participate in PBA auctions via our Real-Time Bidder, which allows users to bid in live auctions from anywhere in the world as though they were in the room with the auctioneer (please see below for details). Other options for bidding in auction include registering to bid via telephone, and placing absentee bids with the gallery ahead of time. Absentee bids may be placed via an item’s detail page on the website, or by calling the gallery at 1.866.999.7224.

Online Auctions 
Online auctions occur exclusively on the website, and run at all times. Online Auctions in general begin each Friday at 5 PM PST and run for ten days, closing on Mondays at 7 or 7:30 PST.

Bidding on Online items is done from the item’s detail page, by entering your bid amount and your password. If you want, you may specify an Autobid amount as well.

When an Online item is in its last five minutes of auction, it enters its Dynamic Close phase. During this time, any bid placed on the item will result in the auction’s length being extended by five minutes. Thus a bid at 6:58 on an item scheduled to close at 7:00 will result in a new closing time of 7:05. If, between 7 and 7:05, another bid is placed, the closing time will become 7:10. This is to ensure that an auction does not close while there is competing bidding activity.
 

Site Features

PBA Galleries’ website is built with the aim of bringing rare books together with book enthusiasts. We are continually implementing new features on the site to help book lovers find the books they are interested in, track these books, and win them in auction. Here are explanations for the current site features that can help you in your search for your items of interest:

Auto Bid 
When placing a bid in an Online Auction, you may choose to enter an Auto Bid in addition to your actual bid. When you do so, the system will automatically submit bids for you in the event that someone else places a bid higher than yours. The system will continue to submit bids for you following the bid increments, until the amount specified in your Auto Bid has been reached. It is important to note that an Auto Bid is not the same as a bid, strictly speaking. It is an agreement between you and the computer that it will attempt to submit bids for you up to a certain amount, and not above that amount.

Bibliobot 
Bibliobot is an instantaneous appraisal tool to help you discover what rare books in your possession might be worth. To use it, simply enter information about your rare book including author, title, year published and condition into the form, and press submit. Bibliobot will return a range of prices based on current market information it has gathered concerning your book.

Browse My Categories 
Used in conjunction with the My Categories feature, this allows users to search through all current Online Auctions and return a list of just the items that fit into his or her categories of interest.

Category Watch 
All of the items catalogued by PBA Galleries’ staff are sorted into one or more of 45 categories of interest. When you create a Watch from the Category Watch section, you will receive weekly notices of newly arrived items matching your categories. Category Watch will send you notification on all items in your categories, both from Live Auctions and Online Auctions.

From the Category Watch page you can also add keyphrases that you wish to receive notification on. Category Watch will search through items’ titles as well as their descriptions, and send you notification about any that match these keyphrases.

My Items 
My Items allows users to track items they are bidding on, as well as items they are simply interested in, and manage them from one centralized location. When you place a bid on an item, it is automatically added to your "My Items" page, and you can thereafter access the item’s detail page easily from the My Items feature. You can also add items to My Items by clicking ‘Add Item to My Items’ at the bottom right side of the item detail page.

Preview Upcoming Items (Live Auction) 
This feature allows visitors to see what is being catalogued right this moment by PBA Galleries staff for inclusion in future Live Auctions. The is a great way to see what’s coming down the road at PBA Galleries and get a sneak preview of the hundreds of items which have not yet been officially 'published' to the website as part of a Sale.

Real Time Bidder 
The Real Time Bidder, used in Live Auctions on auction day, allows visitors to the website to participate in Live Auctions in real-time, as though they were in the room with the auctioneer. With a simple, clear interface, visitors can watch the auction’s progress as it unfolds and place bids on items of interest. Bidders from all corners of the world frequently join in and win items.

For complete instructions on using the Real Time Bidder, please view the demonstration.

Also, please be sure to read the system requirements before using the Real Time Bidder.

Search Options 
There are many different ways to conduct a search for items at PBA Galleries, from the simplest of searches to advanced searches with many criteria.

• Quick Search - found on the lower left side of the homepage and many other pages on the site, Quick Search is the simplest, most direct way of conducting a search for items, searching through current and upcoming auctions in both the Live and Online sections.
• Simple Search - found on the search page, Simple Search is the standard search form.
• Advanced Search - also on the search page, this includes options for searching through catalogue descriptions for keywords, as well as searching by Publisher, date of publication, and several other criteria
• Search by Lot Number - at the bottom of the search page, the Lot Number search allows users to jump directly to a specific lot from a specific sale. If you know exactly what you’re looking for and where to find it, this can save you lots of navigation time.
• Search Live Auctions - found on the Live Auction main page, this feature will take a keyword or phrase and search through Author, Title, and Description of all current and upcoming Live Auction items.

If you have any questions about these features and how best to use them, please contact us at online at pbagalleries.