Run a Live Auction (Virtual, Hybrid or In-person)

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. Once you are in the Live Auction Item mode, you will have options pertaining to live auction items.
Planned Bid Increments will give the Auctioneer the ability to streamline the Live Auction at the time of the Live Event. The auctioneer typically set these increments for each item based on their expected pricing and relative increments they may go up by at different intervals. For further details on how to set up an auction, see the article How to setup an Auction.
When adding your new live auction items, you will have the option of setting a starting bid amount, reserve amount, Allow Auto Bid, Allow Custom Bid, and other options, as shown below.

You will also have the option to set Auto-Increment Plans. The auto-increment plan allows the admin to determine the increments to increase as the bids increase.

It is common for organizations planning a live auction, would make their live auction items View-Only before the event and then activate them one by one as they perform the live auction.
You can manage an item's visibility and bidding availability by adjusting the Access Options on each item. You can also bulk-update this option by selecting one or more items (or click "Select All") and then clicking the "Bulk Update" link shown in the image below.

When you are holding a Live Auction, the auctioneer (and we recommend hiring a professional) leads your guests through a bidding process on items or packages.
You can view your live auction items by clicking on Filter and only having Live Auction Items toggled on.

When you are ready to start accepting bids for a particular auction item, click on the auction item above to view the full page view shown below.
The Auctioneer can log floor bids which they can assign to a guest later or log a bid for a guest.

As shown in the image, you will be able to see all the bids coming in as you run your auction. If you are just starting, then the bids area will be blank.

At any point, the amount shown in the ASKING area is what the guests & bidders see as the current asking price of this item.
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 above example) so that you can 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 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.
As the guests start bidding, the new bids will also be announced on this page with a large prominent alert pop-up message. It is up to you if you want to announce the name of the current bidder.

Each guest can see all auction items on their unique guest page. If they are on a desktop and you are doing a live stream, they will also see the live feed next to the live auction items and can continue to review and bid while watching the auctioneer.
When a guest is ready to bid on an item, they can click the Bid button on the auction item.

When the guest clicks on the Bid button, the confirmation window below will appear, giving the guest the option to either bid the current asking amount or put in a custom bid amount.
The Custom bid amount must be at least $1,000 more than the current asking price to avoid situations where the bidder may undercut the highest asking price by a minor amount.

Once the guest enters a bid for the next asking price, their view would look like below, with a confirmation pop window showing they are the highest bidder at that moment in time.

The highest new bid will be visible to the auctioneer as soon as the new bid comes in.

The guest can stay on this pop-up confirmation page, and as the auctioneer increases the current ask amount, the page will refresh to display the next amount to bid.
If the current bidder is no longer the highest bidder, the page will refresh and indicate that the current bidder is no longer winning this item. As these variables change, the bidder will be displayed with the appropriate information and options.
When the bidder places a winning bid for a particular ask, they will also have the ability to set a Max Bid amount. This amount will not be made visible to anyone, and it will be automatically applied to the item when it's triggered.

When the auctioneer is finished taking in bids for a particular live auction item and has a winner, select the Item Options and click Mark as Awarded.
This will award the item to the highest bidder, and it will be added to the guest's shopping cart for charging later.

Once the item is awarded it will show up as SOLD on the guest page and no longer take bids.

Please see attached printable pdf for Live Auction Bidding Instructions. Live Auction Bidding Instructions - Virtual Event.pdf

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

Let's go do some good.

You may set up a live auction as part of your event and add your live auction items accordingly.