Special Sales Terms and Conditions

LOTTERIES

Last Updated: 27/08/22

Lotteries

This is a basic guide explaining the process and rules of the lotteries hosted on Souled Out Studios. Please read and acknowledge the terms and conditions detailed here before participating in any lotteries on our website.  Please check this info regularly as some policies may be updated in the future.

How Do Lotteries Work?

Our lotteries offer you a fun and interactive way to the score some great artwork at an excellent price while also benefiting the projects supported by the Souled Out Studios Community Fund

The basic process of our lotteries works like this:

  1. Registered users can participate in a lottery by purchasing one or more tickets.
  2. When the lottery successfully closes, winners will be selected automatically or through a live drawing broadcast via our social media channels.
  3. The lottery results will be published on the sales page and the selected lottery winner(s) will be notified by email.

Lottery Details Section Explained

Every lottery on Souled Out Studios displays a details section with some of the following information:LottoDetails

Entry Price – The cost per ticket to participate in a lottery.

Item Condition  – The physical condition of the item(s) on offer ranging from New, Very Good, Fair, Rough, and Damaged.

Winner Selection – The selection method used to determine the winner(s) of the lottery. This can be ‘Instant’ meaning that a winner will be automatically and randomly selected by the software that powers our website, or ‘Live Drawing’ which means we will physically pick winners through a live drawing to be broadcast via our social media channels.

Ticket Selection – This can be either ‘User Selected’ if participants choose their own ticket numbers, or ‘Automatic’ if ticket numbers are randomly assigned to participants by our website.

Max Tickets Per Player – This number represents the limit on how many tickets a participant can buy in a lottery.

Wins Per Player – This determines how many prizes a participant can win in a lottery.  This can be either ‘Single’ meaning that each participant can only win one prize per lottery, or ‘Multiple’ meaning that there is no limit on how many prizes can be won by a participant in a lottery.

Tickets Available – Simply the total number of tickets available for purchase in a given lottery.

Ticket Sales Required – This is the minimum number of total tickets that must be sold for a lottery to be considered valid.  If total ticket sales don’t reach this number by the time the lottery closes, the lottery is considered invalid and any players who bought tickets will have their ticket payments refunded.

Winning Tickets – The total number of winning tickets that will be selected for a lottery.

Shipping Fee – The additional fee (if any) lottery winners must pay to have their prizes shipped to them.

Lottery Rules & Terms

The following are some of the rules, terms, and policies governing all lotteries hosted on Souled Out Studios. By participating in any of our lotteries you acknowledge that you have read and agreed to the details outlined in this page.

Refunds

Prize Returns & Exchanges

Our return policy for lottery prizes is the same as our usual return policy for any other product. If a lottery prize you’ve won arrives damaged, please get in touch with us and we’ll do everything we can to offer you an exchange or replacement.

Participation Prizes

Some of our lotteries may include a participation prize. This is a prize sent to all lottery participants who did not win the main prize in a given lottery. If a lottery includes a participation prize, it will be stated on that lottery’s sales page.

Minimum Tickets & Lottery Validity

Some lotteries require a minimum number of participants or ticket sales to be considered valid. If the minimum number of ticket sales is not reached by the time the lottery closes, the lottery will be considered invalid. When a lottery is invalid, no winner will be selected and all participating users will receive a refund for their ticket purchases. If a lottery requires a minimum number of tickets to be sold, that information will be stated on the lottery’s page.

Lottery Completion Times

A lottery will be complete when either the countdown timer finishes or when all tickets have been sold.  In lotteries where the winners are automatically selected by our server’s software, they will be instantly announced and published at the time of completion.  If winners are to be selected by live drawing, the originally scheduled date for the live drawing will be used even if all tickets were sold before the countdown timer finished.

Lottery FAQ

Below are answers to the some of the Frequently Asked Questions relating to lotteries.  If you have any questions of your own you’d like answered, please send us a message.

How are lottery winners picked?

Lottery winners are selected either automatically or via a live drawing. In an automatic selection, software on our website’s server is activated to randomly select winners from the pool of participants when the lottery finishes. This ensures that the winner selection is instant, random, and free of human error. Live drawings may also be held sometimes and will be broadcast on live video feeds through our social media channels.

Can I buy more than one ticket?

Yes, unless it is otherwise stated on a lottery’s page, users can purchase more than one ticket in a lottery. All lotteries also set a maximum number of tickets allowed per user, which will also be stated on the lottery’s page.

Can I win more than one prize in a lottery?

Check the ‘Wins Per Player’ setting in the lottery details section. If this is set to ‘Multiple’ that means a user can win multiple times in a single lottery, and they have a chance to win a different prize for every ticket they purchase. Otherwise, a user can only win one prize in a lottery regardless of how many tickets they purchase.  Although, purchasing multiple tickets can increase their odds of winning.

Where can I see the results of a lottery?

Lottery winners and results will always be announced on a lottery’s page once it closes. All lottery participants will also receive an email to notify them of the outcome, too.  Lottery participants can see the tickets they purchased under the ‘orders’ section of their account dashboard. 

AUCTIONS

Last Updated: 27/08/22

Table of Contents

Auctions

This is a basic guide explaining the process and rules of the auctions hosted on Souled Out Studios. Please read and acknowledge the terms and conditions detailed here before participating in any auctions on our website.  Please check this info regularly as some policies may be updated in the future.

How do auctions work?

Our auctions offer you a fun and interactive way to the score some great artwork at an excellent price while also benefiting the projects supported by the Souled Out Studios Community Fund

The basic process of our auctions works like this:

  1. Registered users can participate in an auction by placing bids on an auction’s page.
  2. When the auction successfully closes, winners will be announced based on the auction type.
  3. The auction results will be published on the sales page and the auction winner will be notified by email.

Auction Details Section Explained

Every auction on Souled Out Studios displays a details section with some of the following information:AuctionDetails

Entry Fee – The one-time fee charged to participate in an auction.  After your entry fee has been paid and processed, you can return to the auction’s page and place your bids.

Item Condition  – The physical condition of the item(s) on offer ranging from New, Very Good, Fair, Rough, and Damaged.

Auction Type – The type of auction format being used.  This can be Normal, Sealed, or Unique Bid.

Bidding Fee – The fee charged for each bid a user enters in an auction.  Usually this only applies to unique bid auction types.

Bid Increment – This is the minimum amount each bid must increase by when entered in an auction.  For example, if the current bid is £10.00 and the big increment is £1.00, the next bid in the auction must be at least £11.00.

Reserve Price – This is the minimum price that an auction item will be sold for.  This amount is set by the site admin and usually kept secret.  Bids in an auction must reach this amount for the item to be sold.  Although auction participants usually will not know the exact reserve price, they can tell if the price has been met by a notification that appears on the auction sales page.  

Proxy Bidding – This lets participants know if the auction uses a proxy bidding feature.

Shipping Fee – The additional fee (if any) auction winners must pay to have their prize shipped to them.

Auction Rules & Terms

The following are some of the rules, terms, and policies governing auctions hosted on Souled Out Studios. By participating in any of our auctions you acknowledge that you have read and agreed to the details outlined in this page.

Refunds

Auction Fees

Our auctions may include two types of fees users must pay to participate in an auction.  It’s important to note that not every auction requires users to pay a fee.

Registration Fee

This is a one-time fee that users may be charged to participate in an auction.  Users only need to pay this fee once per auction and will not be charged any subsequent bidding fees in that auction.

Bidding Fee

This is a fee that users may be charged every time they place a bid in an auction.

Prize Returns & Exchanges

Our return policy for auction products is the same as our usual return policy for any other product. If an auction product you’ve won arrives damaged, please get in touch with us and we’ll do everything we can to offer you an exchange or replacement.

Participation Prizes

Some of our auctions may include a participation prize. This is a prize sent to all auction participants who did not win the main prize in a given auction. If an auction includes a participation prize, it will be stated on that auction’s sales page.

Reserve Price

Some auctions may include a reserve price. This is simply the lowest acceptable price for which the auctioned item can be sold. If no bids reach the reserve price, the auction will have no winner and the item may or may not be relisted.  Generally the reserve price is not usually revealed to bidders in an auction.

Proxy Bidding

Proxy bidding is a feature in our normal (open ascending price) auctions which allows you to enter a single maximum price you’re willing to bid in an auction. Our system will then automatically bid on your behalf in the smallest increment possible up to that price against any other bids being entered. This allows you to win an auction at the best price possible without having to constantly check to see if you’ve been outbid by other users.  It’s important to note that you cannot enter another bid in an auction until your last proxy bid has been outbid by another user.  For this reason, we suggest bidding the maximum amount you’re willing to pay when you first enter an auction.  When two users enter the same proxy bid amount, the highest bid will be awarded to the user whose bid amount was entered first. 

Bid Increments

Some of our auctions may require minimum bid increments.  This is the price amount by which the next bid entered in an auction must increase.  For example, if an auction has a bid increment amount of £5.00 and the current highest bid is £80.00, this means that the next bid a user enters must be at least £85.00 or more.

Automatic Auction Extensions (soft close)

Our normal (open ascending price) auctions also include an automatic extension or ‘soft close’ feature.  This means that if a bid is received in an auction within the last minutes of that auction’s countdown, the auction will be automatically extended by a few additional minutes to allow any other interested buyers a chance to enter a counter-bid.

Types of Auctions

Normal (open ascending price)

This is the type of auction you’re probably already familiar with, in which participants openly place bids against each other and each subsequent bid must be higher than the last.  Most normal auctions on Souled Out Studios also make use of a proxy bidding feature (see section below) that allows you to win an auction at the best possible price.  The person with the highest bid at the end of the auction wins and pays the winning bid amount they entered.  Think eBay.

Sealed

In this type of auction, participants usually bid only once and enter the single highest bid amount they would be be willing to pay for an item.  However, all bids are sealed and kept hidden from other participants.  No participant knows what other bid amounts have been entered, how many bids have been placed, or how many other people are bidding.  At the end of the auction the person who entered the highest bid will win the auction and pay that amount.

Lowest Unique Bid

In this type of auction, participants are charged a bidding fee to place sealed bids which are not visible to other users.  The objective of a lowest unique bid auction is to be the bidder who places the lowest bid that no other bidder has placed. The bid that is both the lowest and unique (unmatched) when the auction closes is the winning bid.  Generally this type of auction will set a maximum bid price which the winning bid cannot exceed.  Bids are usually entered at very specific amounts to increase the likelihood of each bid being unique.  On Souled Out Studios, unique bids can be entered at values down to the second decimal place.  Prices such as £3.00, £0.47, and £111.12 would all be acceptable bid amounts in our auctions.  When a lowest unique bid auction closes, the winning bid will be announced and all participants’ bid amounts will be revealed.

lowest unique bid explanation

In the example above, the bid of £0.03 would be the winning bid in this lowest unique bid auction because it is the lowest bid with an amount that was only entered by one person, making it unique.

How to Bid

Below you will find a general overview of how to participate in any of the auctions on our website.

Register and log in

To participate in any of our auctions, you must be logged in as a registered user of the site. If you’ve ever purchased anything from us in the past, you are probably already a registered user. Just sign in with your username or email and you can start bidding immediately. If you’re not yet a registered member, click here to sign up. It’s totally free and secure.

Pay the auction fees (if any)

To participate in our auctions, users may have to pay a registration fee that is charged only once per auction, or a bidding fee that is charged for each bid they enter.  These fees help support us, our artists, and the work we do through the SOS Community Fund. These fees also prevent bot activity and ensure that all the bids we receive are from authentic and interested users. To participate in any of our fee-based auctions, click the entry link on the auction page which will guide you through our checkout process.  After completing payment for the registration or entry fee, you will be able to visit the auction page again and enter your bids.

Place your bid

After your fee (if any) is paid, you will be able to freely bid in the auction you selected. Please see the auction types section of this page for more information.  If no fee is required, just log in and bid as usual.

Make payment if you’ve won

Congratulations! If you’re the winner of an auction, click on the ‘make payment’ link on the auction page or in the dashboard of your account to pay the amount you’ve bid. Unless otherwise noted, you will have two days to make a payment on an auction after it closes.

Auction FAQ

Below are answers to the some of the Frequently Asked Questions relating to auctions.  If you have any questions of your own you’d like answered, please send us a message.

Can I delete a bid I’ve made?

Generally, no.  Out of fairness to the other bidders, as well as the artists and charitable groups we support through our auctions, all bids entered and fees paid are considered final, unchangeable, and non-refundable once received.  Please make sure you understand and agree to this before participating in our auctions.

When should I pay for an auction item I’ve won?

Payments for auction items you’ve won must be made within 48 hours of winning that auction unless stated otherwise. If you fail to make payment for an auction within this timeframe, the item you’ve won may be relisted.  

If you have any questions about making a payment for an auction, please feel free to send us a message.

Can I outbid myself in an auction?

No, in normal proxy auctions it is not possible to enter another bid until your last bid has been outbid by another participant.  We recommend making use of our proxy bidding feature in auctions to ensure you win an auction at the best price possible.  This does not apply to unique bid auction types in which you can enter as many bids as you like.