Add Auction Items

On the Manage Auction page, click Add Item to add your silent auction or live auction items.

Adding a Silent Auction Item

In the Add Auction Item window, the auction item type will default to Silent Auction Items. Fill in the details of your auction item and click Save.
You will use this same window for adding silent auction and live auction items.

Item No: this is a system-generated and defaulted number; however, feel free to change it as is suitable for your event or organization. As long as the number is unique across any active auctions within your organization, it is yours to customize. This reference number is a unique identifier for your auction item and will need to be visible on your silent auction item because this is what bidders will use to bid on your item. This does not have to be a numeric reference; it can have letters as well.
Not Visible to Guests [default]: This is the default setting when creating a new item. This item will not be shown to any public or guests while in Hidden status.
View Only: This is typically used for live auction items or in cases where you would like to preview the auction items for your guests before opening them up for bidding or purchasing.
Allow Bids or Purchase: When you are ready to activate the item for bidding, you would mark your items with this option.
Title: basic name for your auction item. Should uniquely identify your item—up to 50 characters.
Description: this will typically appear on your printout card and online when someone clicks on the item to view more detail. So make it count - provide exact details of what the winner will be getting if they win this item.
Categories: You can choose to put your specific auction items into categories of your choice. Categories may be useful if you have a lot of auction items in your event. The guests/bidders can choose certain categories to view and bid on instead of searching through all Auction items. For more information visit: Auction Item Categories.
Item Behavior: Decide whether this item is a Silent or Live Auction Item.
Available for bidding: Turn this option on if you want to accept bids for this item. If you turn this off, then no bids will be accepted. If you turn on the Purchase Now option, the item will only be purchasable out-right instead of available to be bid on.
Starting Bid Amount: The minimum bid you are accepting as the bidding starts for this item. If you leave this blank, the system will accept any amount as a starting bid.
Min Increment: The minimum amount by which a bidder can outbid an existing bid. e.g.,. if you set this to $5, and the current highest bid is $100, someone would have to bid at least $105 to be the winning bidder. In this example, if you tried to bid $104, it would not be accepted as a valid bid. If you leave this blank, the system will assume $1 increments.
Allow Auto Bid: Toggle whether guests can set a Max Auto Bid on this item.
Auto Increment: See this Article.
Reserve Amount: The reserve amount indicates the minimum amount the organizer is willing to accept to award this item to the highest bidder. You can optionally show this number to bidders to entice higher bids. If bidders know a limit, they may be enticed to reach that limit to win this item. If you don't share this information with the bidders, this field will simply act as a reference for you as you process the bids for items.
Buy Now Price: Check the "Available For Buy Now" option to allow anyone to purchase this item by skipping the bidding process and offering the Buy Now amount provided in the Buy Now price field. If you have both bidding and Buy Now available, anyone who bids at or higher than the purchase price will automatically win the item and be notified.

Advanced Options

Pin to Top Options: Pinned items will be displayed at the top of the Auction Item lists.
Est. Value: This is a way to entice bidders to go higher. It can effectively indicate the value the winner would be getting for this item as you accept bids.
Hide Est. Value: Toggle whether or not bidders can view the Est. Value of an item.
Priceless: Toggle whether or not the word "Priceless" is displayed rather than an Est. Value.
Sales Tax Applicable: Toggle whether or not you would like to be able to bulk add sales tax to this item after it has been purchased. This can be done in the Guest Cart.
Winning Bidder Communication: You can enter any specific instructions for the winner of this Auction Item.
Auto-Increment Plan: The auto-increment plan allows the admin to determine the increments to increase as the bids increase. Enter in the increments you require at different bid points, as shown below. See the article Auction Item Auto-Increment Plan or further details.

Bundle: Bundle auction items together to create a package. For more information please see this article.

Additional Item Details (For Internal Use)

Provided By: Optional: Provide the name and information of the constituent or company that provided this item.
Provider Contact Info: Optional: Contact Information for the person you are coordinating with for the provider.
Item Location: Optional: Provide item location information - this can be for pick-up instructions or other logistical details.
External Reference No: Optional: Provider's or other internal reference number for this item.
Solicitor: Optional: Person(s) in your organization or otherwise who facilitated the accrual of item.
Gift-in-kind Cost: Optional: Provide cost information if known.
Misc. Information 1 and 2: Optional: A general placeholder for any other specific information you'd like to track for this item. When you mouse over the “Misc Information 1” and 2, it will turn into a textbox that you can edit. This is on a per item basis. For instance, instead of calling it Misc Information 1, you can edit this and give it any title you want.
- In your Auction Settings page, you can choose to show Highest Bidder information or Item provided by information or Misc Info 1 or Misc Info 2 as shown in the below image. You can also choose to show none of this information.

Adding a Live Auction Item

Click Add Item to add a Live Auction Item. Then on the popup window, change the Purchase Options dropdown from Silent Auction Item to Live Auction Item.

Planned Bid Increments will allow the Auctioneer to streamline the Live Auction at the time of the Live Event. The auctioneer typically sets these increments for each item based on their expected pricing and relative increments that may go up at different intervals. These optional increments help the auctioneer progress through the live auction item. Different increments might be used depending on the current bid on the particular item. For example, if the current bid that the auctioneer is calling out is $1000, he might go up in increments of $250. But if the live auction item gets to $10,000, he might choose to go up increments of $500. To keep that relative increment increase in price that they are asking in a fast manner, the auctioneer might choose a set of increments that makes sense for the expected price of this live auction item. In the example below, The amount is shown in the "Next Ask" text box is the currently assumed next amount that you will be raising the asking price to next. This amount is auto-populated for you based on your current selection of the increments (e.g., $50 in the below example) so that you can simply click GO to increase your asking price. As the price of the item goes up, we expect that your increments may also go up, in which case, you can simply increase the increment amount to your preference at that time, or you can at any time, type in a manual amount in the Next Ask text box and hit GO.

Edit Auction Item Images

You can switch directly from editing or adding an item to editing the images for that item. It will first save the item and then open the images for that item.
You can add images from a local or an online location.
You can also pick your primary image that represents your auction item, which will be shown first.
When an image is added to an item, it may take a few minutes to refresh on this window.
If you have added more than one image for your Auction Item, you can sort the order of these images anytime by clicking on Sort.

You can also add images to your auction items after you create them. Click on the Edit Images link to provide one or more images or videos for each item.

Need Additional Help?

We're here to assist you in any way we can. Don't hesitate to reach out to support@betterunite.com

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