2. You only need to register once. Your Bidder information will be kept on file for future auctions. Should you forget your password, simply click on the help page to have it emailed to you.

3. The auction options and pages should be easy to understand. If you make a mistake, the program will prompt you for the correct action.

4. To view items in the auction, enter the auction through the "Home" auction page. On this page you will find several options to choose from. Simply click on the category or family that you wish to view. To use the keyword search simply type in the trivial or genus name into the box but not both. Example: clarki or Typhis.

5. There are many items in this auction. Depending on your browser, computer setup and web connection, you may experience difficulties viewing the entire list all at once. Or if the net is being exceptionally slow it may take quite awhile to load the entire list. When this is a problem, I would recommend looking at a family or category one at a time.

6. While viewing the auction list chosen. Should you see an item you wish to bid on, just click on the "name on the item". A new form screen will come up and list the item with it's picture, the current bid, and display several fill in the box areas.

7. Enter your bidder/username and password in the appropriate boxes. Ensure that your bidder ID and password are typed correctly. The program is case sensitive, meaning that "ABC123" is not the same as "abc123". Once you have decided on your bid amount place your bid. You may also if you wish place a maximum bid at the same time in the appropriate box. If you do not want to place a maximum bid, simply leave it blank and click on the Preview or Submit Bid buttons.

8. Placing a maximum bid. This program has a proxy bidding feature. In the first line "Enter your normal bid here," you probably want to enter the lowest possible bid to get control of the bid. Whatever you enter here is counted as your lowest possible bid. Now enter the maximum amount you are willing to spend in the "Maximum Bid" area. Then your bid will increase by the bidding increment only as needed. You are the only one that knows your maximum bid. If you wish to go back later and make your maximum bid higher, you can do so by repeating the process without raising the current bid if you are still currently the high bidder.

9. The auction is setup to automatically lock out and close at 2-3 PM EST or 2 minutes after the last bid on the designated date. It seems that some auction bidders wait very close to the last minute to make final bids for items they really want. That's OK, but please keep this in mind. The "OFFICIAL TIME" is kept by the clock on the server where the auction program is stored. Even if the sever clock is off by a few minutes, that's the clock we go by. Molluscan Auction does not have any control over that clock and is not responsible for any network delays. So please don't wait until the very last minute.

10. Restrictions: No one associated with Molluscan Auction is permitted to bid on any item in this auction. Dealers or individuals who have consignments in the auctions are not allowed to bid on their own consignment items. They are also prohibited from manipulating the price of any item, by use of a shill (a secondary account or third party). Any individual who is found to shill bid on items will be barred from all future auctions.

11. After the auction: High bidders will be notified by email within 24 hours of the auction ending. Notification will include a complete invoice of all the items you were successful on and the total price including shipping. Items are normally shipped within 24 hours of receiving payment.

12. Additional costs for packing and postage, if you are the high bidder of the shells offered by Molluscan Auction:

Small box USD 6 up
Medium box USD 9 up
Large box USD 12 up
Extra postage for heavy shell depends on the weight

If the shells are shipped by the owner, please ask the postage before you place your bid. Some heavy shell will be charged a lot.

13. Payment and shipping: We accept US cash in registered airmail, Paypal and bank transfer.

We do not accept US personal check drawn on US bank and bank check drawn on US bank.

Sorry postal money order are unacceptable. Please note that you must pay all the extra bank charge for bank transfer payment.

If you want to arrange another kind of payment such as Western Union, please contact us.

If you pay Molluscan Auction, please ask for more details

If you are high bidder of the shells offered by Molluscan Auction, we try our best to pack the shells so broken shells rarely happened. If the shells are broken due to the package problem, we will take the responsiblility for credit, replace or refund. However, we could not afford the broken shells if it is caused by box damaged during trasnsportation. In case it happens, you should report us immediately so that we could claim our Post Office here. The maximum refund is USD 40.

We could not afford any missing parcel without insurance. We ship out the shells very carefully once the payment arrived. As the boxes did not have insurance so the maximum refund is USD 40 depends on how much we could claim from our Post Office.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you want to send your shells by Speedpost or other kind of method.

If there is any missing parcel or broken offered by Molluscan Auction, we will try our best to find replacement shells. However, we do not guarantee full amount refund or credit.

IMPORTANT: If there is any missing parcel or broken shells offered by other sellers, we will not offer replacement or refund to buyer nor seller. As both buyer and seller will send the shells, or pay their money, at your own risk.

14. The images of shells are the actual shells to be bid on: No artifical enhancement to the images are done. The only enhancement allowed is to show, as close as possible the true likeness of the shell.

15. Grading and Description: The grading of shells is done by the owner. A complete description of anything noteworthy about the specimen is also provided. Both pros and cons. Note, different sellers will have different grading, if you have any question about the grading or defect, or if you doubt the ID of the shells, please ask the sellers before you place your bid

16. All sales are FINAL and they are contract! If there is a legitimate error or misrepresentation of the item, please bring it to the attention of the owner.

17. Please be mindful of your budget, don't bid more that it allows, there will always be more neat stuff next auction. This is supposed to be a fun deal, and not a hardship for anyone.