Spend R100 or more on bidorbuy, send us your order number and you could be the proud owner of the new iPad

Up for Grabs: iPad 16Gb, 4G 

How to enter:

Step 1: Spend R100 on bidorbuy

Step 2: Pay with bobPay-EFT or bobPay-Credit Card.

Step 3: Enter here, remembering to quote your order number.

Competition Details:

• Purchases made from the 21st of May until the 30th of June will only be valid
• The winner will be announced on the 2nd of July through a lucky draw
• Multiple entries are welcome as long as you enter with a new order number
• Please note an entry will only be valid if you have paid for your order through bobPay EFT or bobPay Credit card.

	bobPay EFT is available to all our sellers for quick and efficient payment by buyers. bidorbuy has accounts with each major South African Bank(Absa, FNB, Standard Bank and Nedbank). Payment instructions are given to buyers as soon as an order is complete. Therefore delays in payment are a thing of the past.
	Buyers and sellers will receive a notification as soon as a payment has cleared in our accounts. bobPay Credit Card is a payment method for sellers to accept credit card payments. Secure and easy to use, only verified sellers can accept these payments.

ENTER HERE

The general consensus is that the new iteration of Apple’s revolutionary product is definitely a step above the rest. The new Retina display, 5-megapixel camera & A5X processor make the new iPad the benchmark in tablets.

They keep you cosy and they look fabulous. Whether it’s those flat-heeled, roughed-up leathers that you’ve had forever or your fancy high-heeled ankle boots– they’re still super chic. See the guide below to find out how to wear different styles of boots, and what makes each style so awesome.

Ankle Boots

• Proportions: do not wear ankle boots with top-heavy pants like boyfriend jeans; it warps the silhouette of the outfit
• Wear them with: leggings’ skinny jeans and short skirts work great with ankle boots
• The General Rule: the higher the ankle boot goes up your calf, the higher the skirt hem should be
• Trending: go for a boyfriend jacket, leggings and ankle boots

Find this pretty ankle boot here

Find more beautiful ankle boots on bidorbuy

Classic Rise Boots

• Wear them with: boot leg jeans are made to wear over classic rise boots, or tuck your skinny/straight-leg jeans into them to show them off
• Proportions: classic rise boots can fit in the middle of your calf to somewhere below your knee. Choose your favourite fit but make sure the gap between the boot and your leg is not to wide
• Helpful Hint: stretchy boots, zippers and slouchy fabric are the way to go if you find it difficult to find boots that fit your legs
• Trending: try them with a layered skirt with a hem that sits just above the knee

Find this gorgeous pair of Nine West boots here

Want more classic length boots? Look through the bidorbuy selection

Over-the-knee Boots

• Helpful Hint: if you feel like these might be too daring for you, try the convertible version that allows you to fold the top down to get a classic rise boot
• Proportions: these boots attract attention, so keep the rest of your outfit simple
• Wear them with: you can wear these in a similar way to how you wear your classic rises.
• Trending: try skinny jeans or tights with a relaxed-fitting top or tunic. A layered look is great with over-the-knees

Find these Plum Delicious treats here

You can look for more over-the-knee boot on bidorbuy too

Tinkle Pea has been registered as a seller on bidorbuy since 2006. Six years later, Tinkle Pea was among the first to “rent” a store on bidorbuy, practically as soon as those became available in April 2012.

Tinkle Pea sells quality children’s toys, crafts and safety products and also a small selection of children’s clothing.

Here is Jenny’s story:

When I started selling on bidorbuy in 2006, it was just for fun. I started with used children’s clothing and a few other odds and ends. In 2007 I left my job and became a stay-at-home Mom, and from then my hobby evolved into a business.

Bidorbuy has a lot of benefits to both sellers and buyers. Buyers feel comfortable to order on bidorbuy as they can view the sellers’ ratings to find out exactly what sort of person or business they are dealing with; they can seek help from the bidorbuy customer support to resolve undelivered orders and other issues that may arise; and they can leave feedback on their experience with each seller.

Sellers can tap into the huge customer base that bidorbuy has to offer and also benefit from bidorbuy’s extensive advertising.

The secure payment options offered by bidorbuy benefit both buyers and sellers.

My business, Tinkle Pea, is all about service and quality. We only stock top-quality brands, most of which are already well known in the market place, like Melissa & Doug. We always ship within one working day of payment being received, ensure that our orders are securely packed and strive to keep our shipping costs as low as possible. We hold a lot of stock, so that our customers always have a lot to choose from. We make sure that we communicate with our customers and let them know the tracking numbers as soon as the orders have been sent.

The biggest lesson I have learnt about selling on bidorbuy is NEVER to overstate the product that you are selling. I did this once in May 2007 with a 2nd hand book. I had stated the condition as:  “Paperback, very good condition (there is a bit of damage to the edges of the cover, there is also a book exchange stamp on the first page)”. When I came to pack it, I realised that the condition was a lot worse than this. The very kind buyer gave me a positive rating with the following comment “Well read book received, and will be enjoyed – thank you.” The embarrassment! I remember this each and every time I create a listing.

I have not been very active in promoting my items on bidorbuy, but I look forward to making more use of the Crazy Auctions and Featured Listings in the near future.

Advice I would give to new sellers is as follows:

1. Sell a product that you believe in, don’t sell junk.
2. List your products as honestly and accurately as possible.
3. Answer all questions from potential buyers quickly and politely.
4. Rate your buyers as soon as they have paid. Nothing annoys me more than sellers waiting for buyers to rate them before they complete the buyers rating.
5. NEVER ship unless you have received payment from a buyer. Most buyers are great, but every now and then one comes along that doesn’t pay. If this happens to you, be sure to use bidorbuy’s Sale Not Complete (SNC) system to report the buyer and have your success fees refunded.

Bidorbuy is a wonderful selling platform which is easy to use. I have also been very happy with the service provided by bidorbuy staff.

Our user name on bidorbuy is Tinkle Pea, I look forward to meeting some of you as new customers soon!

We had such an exciting month here at bidorbuy, receiving all of the cutest baby photos we have ever seen for our Baby Photo competition.

With a total of 745 entries between the 16th of April and the 7th of May, and then an astonishing 10,442 votes in just a week, we were left with a list of the ten who got the most votes.

A random draw was held and the winner is…

Alyssa Pillay:

Alyssa receives R10,000 to spend in the bidorbuy Baby category. Thank you to everyone who participated, and better luck in our next bidorbuy competition. For details on this, keep an eye on our Facebook page and competition blog in about a week.

Are you a new mom, or still expecting? Well, raising a child is a tough job as it is, but then add shopping into the mix and it becomes almost impossible! That is why you should shop online, at bidorbuy.co.za.

Top 3 reasons why you should shop on bidorbuy (because you only need 3):

1. When you shop on bidorbuy, you don’t have to walk up and down the shopping mall about three times, all the while carrying a baby… (and still not find that thing you want).

2. When you shop on bidorbuy, you don’t have to juggle your baby and the trolley, struggle to answer your cellphone and find the purse… (you get the picture).

3. When you shop on bidorbuy, you do get a wide selection of products at prices that are as a rule cheaper than anywhere else, and you can pay via internet banking. At your leisure. From the comfort of your own home. It’s as simple as a click of a button.

So go in to our Baby category and shop for all of the baby essentials.

Find these items on bidorbuy: Items from Poogybear1

Find these items on bidorbuy: Items from dominiquesonline

Find these items on bidorbuy: Items from AZee Baby

You are a few simple clicks away from shopping heaven, and while you’re there, stop on by the fashion section for something a little special for you (because all moms deserve to be spoiled).

Then don’t. Read on to find out how to quickly pull out a USB device from your Windows computer without suffering the consequences of your impatience.

You have been warned about the bad things that happen if you snatch an external USB drive from your computer without going through the Safely Remove Hardware procedure.

And that’s perfectly true. The next time you use the un-safely removed USB device, you may be served a warning box informing you about possible problems with some files on it.

The Safely Remove Hardware procedure is there for a reason. It ensures that Windows is not reading from or writing to the drive at the precise moment when you are busy removing it, because that could result in corrupted data or even a damaged drive.

However, there is a way to avoid the several seconds (milliseconds?) long Safely Remove Hardware procedure without endangering the data or the drive.

This is what to do:

1. Plug in the USB drive (or several USB drives, if you have enough slots) and open Device Manager.
2. Expand Disk Drives and find your removable USB drive (or drives).
3. Right-click (or double-click) on the device for which you want to quit using the Safely Remove Hardware option.
4. Click Properties.
5. Click the Policies tab.
6. Make sure that the first option, Quick removal, is selected.
7. Click OK, and repeat for each USB drive.

Now that you have disabled the write caching, you can disconnect all USB devices marked with Quick removal without using the Safely Remove Hardware notification icon.

But, wait. Since the other option (the one that does require using the Safely Remove procedure) is called Better performance, are you actually sacrificing something onto the altar of your impatience?

Turns out, not really. According to tests run by several tech gurus, the loss of performance is negligible and worth a few seconds (milliseconds?) wasted messing with Safely Remove Hardware all the time.

Windows will remember your Quick removal settings assigned in the Device Manager for the specific USB device even if, several days later, you plug that device into a different USB slot on your computer. That means that you can keep unplugging it directly once you are done working with it.

However, do pay attention to the “once you are done working with it” bit. If you unplug the device in the middle of writing something onto it, you will probably encounter the “possible problems” warning box the next time you use it. In that case, simply click on the Scan and fix option the Windows presents to you in the warning box, and in most cases your problem will be fixed. To play it safe, it’s better to close the USB drive before yanking it out.

And now that you know how to remove them quickly, go shopping for a USB stick or an external USB hard disk drive.

Photographic Equipment is exciting because that is where you can find excellent deals on all kinds of cameras and accessories like tripods and stands, lenses and filters, flashes and lightening, plus everything else you need to pursue an absorbing hobby or a professional career, at prices that are as a rule lower than anywhere else.

Since the subject matter is so broad, we’ll focus our attention only on cameras. So, this is what you can currently find on bidorbuy, camera-wise:

• For casual photographers or shoppers on a budget, there are almost four hundred compact digital cameras under R1500. (You’ll find the cheapest first in our list.)
• Photographers with grander aspirations will want to take a look at some of about 150 higher end digital SLR cameras. (The prices in our selection range from R9000 for a kit with a lens, to about R75,000 for the camera body only.)
• For those who want the performance that’s close to low to mid level SLRs but object to lugging around a massive apparatus, there are plenty of advanced compact cameras that pack considerable powers into a slim, light body.
• If moving pictures are your thing, choose from among over one thousand video cameras and camcorders of all shapes, sizes, brand names and prices.
• And for those who feel nostalgic, bidorbuy sellers have film cameras too. (Just make sure that you can count on a steady supply of the film, and, if worst comes to worst, be prepared to do the developing and printing yourself.)

So much for the offer. Now, let’s see kinds of cameras bidorbuyers buy in an average week.

In the seven days spanning from end of April until the beginning of May 2012, about 130 cameras were sold on the site: almost forty compact digital cameras, a little over twenty digital SLR cameras, more than sixty video cameras, and – surprise, surprise – eight film cameras.

In case you happen to be among the people who hold the view that dedicated cameras are redundant now that every mobile phone has photo-taking capabilities (see this article), we beg you to reconsider. Digital cameras remain obligatory for anything more ambitious than a stamp-sized photo destined for a social networking site. (By the way, a proper camera is highly recommended for those among you who hope to attain fame in one of our forthcoming Snappy photo challenges!)

So, in the name of decent images, set your sights on the bidorbuy digital cameras selection. It may help you to know that the most popular brand search keywords in this section currently are: Olympus, Canon, Nikon and Sony.

The winner of the Star Wars competition is… Justin Hooper.

The force is definitely strong with you, young padawan.

Learn from your new master, Yoda-bobblehead, and one day you will be a Jedi Knight.

Here’s Justin’s winning answer to our question: “How many Yodas can you fit in a bidorbuy smart car?”

The force is not strong enough in me to make yoda do a goddamn thing. Do or no do there is no try and I’ll choose no do in this case. In the words of Admiral Ackbar: “It’s a trap!”

Theoretically though, a smart car is 2.5m x 1.51m x  1.5m (LxWxH) and provided we take 45% of that space for the car itself gives us 1.125m x 67.95cm x 67.5cm. Now we take Yoda as he is reportedly 66cm tall and we’ll assume 33cm wide. I’d have to say 8 yoda’s. Anything that may get in the way ie armrests etc can be Force pushed out of the way.

There may be flaws with the math but then there were the same flaws in the Death Star. (damn unprotected exhaust vent of doom!)

Thanks to Dark Carnival ZA, you’re prize is the whole set of bobbleheads, which will be delivered to you shortly.

Thanks to everyone for playing along with us.

And, May the 4th be with you today on Star Wars Day…

Pair them with a sleek, fitted boyfriend blazer and a cute mini dress (keep the colour neutral) or ruche up a pair of skinny jeans. In fact they’re really versatile.

Pick a neutral colour like black or grey glitter if it seems a bit over the top for you. Or go for gold or red glitter and really make a statement.

Find glitter pumps for sale on bidorbuy

If you haven’t entered the competition yet, you have until Monday. But why delay – go to our Facebook Competition App and do it now.

What happens next:

• Entries close on Monday the 7th of May, around noon. If you have entered, and your submission has been approved, you will receive an email with the link to your little one’s photo on our Facebook contest app.
• Post this link on your Facebook profile and send it to all your friends, asking them to vote for your little bundle of joy. The voting ends on the 14th of May, in the afternoon.
• The ten photos with the most votes become the finalists. The winner will be randomly drawn from among the ten finalists and announced on the 16th of May.

Thank you to all of the entrants, and good luck!