Embedded Files
You're finally finished with Formulas! Now we will provide the software with details about your auction. Navigate to this section by clicking the word Auctions on the left hand side of the software. If you are creating a new auction click the New Auction button in the top right corner. If you are editing an auction you already created click the Pencil Icon next to the name of that auction. This will direct you to the Details page.
The first section you should see in the top left corner of the Details page will be the Auction Information. This section will allow you to check off which type of auction this will be (AuctionTime, BidCaller, HiBid, or In-Person.)
Auction Code: This is an optional code that you can associate with this auction for your own purposes.
Name: This is the name of the auction that will display to your bidders.
Description: This is a description of the type of auction this will be (personal property, vehicle, real estate, etc.)
Dates: These are the dates that the auction will be visible online. These dates are NOT the dates that bidding takes place. Some auction houses will choose to upload the catalog before bidding is enabled, this is why the catalog can be uploaded before bidding opens.
Underneath the Dates you will see several more settings in the Auction Information section.
- Tax Exempt All: Checking this box means that the entire auction's lots will be exempt from tax.
- Terms and Conditions: This field is where you will enter your Terms and Conditions. Every auction can have their own unique set of Terms and Conditions. Bidders MUST agree to these Terms and Conditions before they are able to register for any auction that has an online bidding component.
- Short BP Explanation: This is a field to enter a brief description of what your Buyer's Premium is. This is useful not only for bidders who are frequent visitors to your site but also to enlighten first time bidders who may not be familiar with the terminology of the auction world.
- Address, City, State, Zip, Country: These fields are used to enter the location of either your auction house OR the location that the auction will be held in the event your auction is on site.
- Use Consolidated Seller/Salesperson/Buyer Settlements: This checkbox refers to participants in your auction that will be buyers and sellers. If this box is checked then a Seller who also makes purchases in this auction will have their sales and purchases on one Settlement form at the end of the auction. If this box is not checked then there will be one settlement for their sales and another settlement for their purchases.
In the upper right corner of the Details page you will see the Auction Images section.
Images attached to this field are not attached to Lots. These are images that appear as the thumbnail on your auction's preview when viewed online.
To attach images here you can drag and drop pictures from your computer into the area that says, "Drop Files here to upload."
You can also click on that same area and a navigation window will appear allowing you to select the images you want to attach to your auction.
Example of where images appear when entered to the Auction Images field.
Underneath the Auction Images you will see the Auction Links section. This is used when you want to redirect your bidders to a different website. To add a link click the Add button.
Once you click the Add button a new window will appear and prompt you to enter the URL that you want to direct customers towards and a Description.
The Description is what the link will say when viewed by bidders.
The New Lot Defaults section is where you will set percentages applied both to the consignor and the buyers. The fields listed will be:
- Commission: The percentage you are obtaining as your cut from the consignor.
- Buyer Tax: The amount of sales tax applied to the bidders.
- Buyer Premium: The percentage you are obtaining as a cut from the buyer.
- Seller Tax: The amount of tax applied to the consignor.
- Min Bid Amount: The starting bid placed on all lots.
By default each of these fields will be empty and possess no options to enter new Commissions, Buyer's Premiums, or Taxes. This is because you must add your specific percentages to the software's database first. To see how these percentages are added click HERE.
Ring Options are used solely for Webcast style auctions. They allow you to sell multiple segments of your catalog at the same time in separate locations while all still being part of the same cataloged auction. Each of these segments is referred to as a ring.
To add a new ring click the Add button.
Once you click the Add button a new window will appear prompting you to enter the number of the ring.
The second field will ask for the first lot number in the range you're selecting.
The final field will ask for the last lot number in the range you're selecting.
When you have all of your fields entered click the Save button.
You can add as many Rings as you wish to an auction and there is no limit to how many lots can be in each Ring.
If you are holding a traditional live only auction that contains no online bidding component then this will be the end of your pertinent settings on this screen. The last portion of your Details page will contain a grid to configure a Bid Increment schedule. While this is a great tool, it is fairly common for live auctions to stray from a structured bid increment schedule as it is easy for an auctioneer to change their asking price on the fly. If you would like to setup a bid increment skip to the bottom of this page.
HiBid Auction Upload Settings
HiBid Auction Upload Settings
The first section of the Upload Settings section will be regarding Dates. All of these fields are optional and are just text fields to inform your bidders.
- Preview Date/Times: Use this field if you have times where bidders can visit your auction location to view the item(s) being sold.
- Auction Date/Times: Use this field to list the exact dates and times the auction will run.
- Checkout Date/Times: Use this field to state when bidders can come to your location to pay for their items in person.
The Notices section is meant for alerting your bidders of something important that may have been glossed over in your Terms and Conditions. Both types of Notices appear at the top of your catalog as well as the top of every items specific page online.
The Bidding Notice and the Auction Notice will appear in the same place. If you use both fields then one will appear directly above the other.
Above is an example of a Bidding Notice.
The Payment/Shipping/Pick Up Section will provide three fields:
- Auction Currency: This field will indicate the abbreviation for the currency you are accepting. For example U.S.A. would use USD. Canada would use CDN.
- Payment Information: This field allows you to indicate what payment methods you accept. (Visa, MasterCard, Wire Transfer, Personal Check, Cash, etc.)
- Shipping/Pick Up: This field allows you to indicate your policies on shipping and pickup. You can also use this field to state what days and times bidders can come to your location to pick up items.
There are three segments regarding Registration Settings. The first is the Registration Type where you will find four check boxes.
Each checkbox refers to certain restrictions placed upon bidders when attempting to register for the auction.
- No Registration: Checking this option means that there is no bidding enabled on your catalog. This would be used in an instance where you wish to upload your auction but may be advertising a live auction OR if you are holding the online bidding on a different platform.
- Bidder Record Only (basic contact info - no CC): This option means that your bidders are not required to provide a credit card when registering. Once they create a HiBid account using their basic information such as Name, Address, Email, etc... they are able to register for the auction.
- Bidder Verification (CC verified but info not provided): This option means that your bidders WILL be required to provide a credit card. When they provide this card information we will verify that it is a real card and that the address information entered by the bidder matches what is on file with their associated bank/credit card company. This option will NOT provide you will this card information. You will still need to reach out to the bidder to obtain payment information.
- Bidder Authentication (CC verified and info provided): This option means that your bidders WILL be required to provide a credit card which we will verify for authenticity just as in the previous option. This option WILL retain the card information. This option is mandatory if you are using our integrated credit card processing via CurrencyPay. This option allows you to process winning bidder credit cards directly after the close of the auction without needing to reach out to bidders to obtain payment information.
The Bidder Authentication Selected Options allow you to determine what brand of credit cards your bidders are able to register with (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover.)
This area also has a field indicating how frequently we need to verify and re-verify repeat bidder credit cards when they register for your auctions. For clarification on this setting and the cost associated with credit card verification visit our website at https://www.auctionflex.com/about-hibid/pricing
The Successful Bidder Registration Options revolve around what happens at the moment a bidder registers for this specific auction.
- Starting Bidder #: This field indicates the first bid card # given to your first online bidder. The numbers go up in increments of 1 for each subsequent registration.
- Bidder Permission (USD): This field allows you to create a permission in the form of a dollar amount for registered bidders. Clarification on this setting is below.
- Email Subject/Body: When a bidder registers for your auction the software will send out an email to that bidder. Use the Email Subject and the Email Body fields to compose the email you would like us to send to them.
Clarification on Bidder Permission (USD): When a bidder registers for an auction the software sets the bidder with a specific dollar amount they are allowed to bid on each item in your catalog. The dollar amount you enter into this field will be that permission. For example, if you put $5,000 in this field that means every bidder who registers for this auction can place a bid on every item up to $5,000. Any bid placed up to $5,000 will be accepted automatically by HiBid. IF the bidder attempts to place a bid over $5,000 the system will inform the bidder that the bid is "Pending Auctioneer Approval."
At this point we also alert the auction house via email stating that the bidder is attempting to bid over their permission level and provide you with options to accept or decline the bid. You also have the option at this point to increase the allowed dollar amount of this specific bidder (in case they intend to keep bidding at higher dollar amounts on other items.)
You can also view and approve/decline these pending bids by logging into https://my.hibid.com/ These bids will appear in two places after you login, examples below.
The pending bids are shown at the top of your template page next to your User Name
Your Pending Bids can also be viewed by clicking the Lots Stats button under your selected auction and scrolling to the specific lot.
To address the pending bid click on the Orange number.
The Bidding Type section is for indicating what level of online participation the selected auction will have. The four options are explained below.
- No Internet Bidding: This option means that the auction will be uploaded as a listing only and will have no bidding available online.
- Absentee Bidding: This option means that the auction will be uploaded for internet bidding during a certain time after which online bidding will close and a live auction will be held. If an online bidder's max bid placed on an item is higher than one placed by a live participant then the online bidder will still win the lot.
- Internet Only Auction: This option means that the auction will be solely online. There is a finite start and ending date and time that the auction will run and when it comes to a close there is no more bidding.
- Webcast (Live Internet Bidding): This is a combination of an internet only auction and a traditional in person auction. The auction will be uploaded for online pre-bidding in the same way that an online only auction is BUT, when the auction house is ready, they will activate the Webcast. Once activated the auction will progress like a traditional auction in front of a live audience while allowing online bidders to bid in real time against them.
The Settings section will cover a few online specific bidding choices. These setting are:
- Minimum Bid Type
- Bid Amount Type
- Start/Stop Bidding Settings
The Start/Stop Bidding Settings indicate when the BIDDING on items will begin and end. This is different than previous date/times settings that only refer to when the catalog is visible.
Make sure that you have the correct Timezone selected and that you do NOT have a date/time in the Close Bidding field that is in the Past. All Closing Dates should be future dates.
- Minimum Bid Type
- Public Bidding (ebay style): This setting means that everyone can see the current high bid placed on an item and they are able to place a bid accordingly. This is the most common choice.
- Sealed Bid (silent): This setting means that bidders cannot see the current high bid placed on your lots. Bidders are able to place a bid of what they wish and they will not know until the end of the auction if their bid was the winning bid.
- Bid Amount Type
- Maximum Bidding (Up to): This setting means that bidders are able to place a maximum bid on an item. After this bid is placed they no longer need to place a new bid on their items as the software will bid on their behalf until their maximum is reached. If their maximum bid is beaten by another bidder then the bidder is informed that they have been outbid and will need to place a new bid on their lot.
- Fixed/Flat Bidding: This setting means that bidders are only able to place a specific bid on an item. They can place a bid for the very next dollar amount OR they can place a bid for a higher dollar amount. The difference between this and maximum bidding is when a bidder places a bid for an amount higher than the very next bid amount, the system will automatically jump their bid to the amount they entered instead of going incrementally the way Maximum Bidding does.
- Soft Close Seconds: This setting is used to increase time left on an item for as long as it continues to receive incoming bids. The following examples are based on this setting having a 60 second amount entered.
- Bidder places a bid on an item with >60 seconds left: No change to the countdown.
- Bidder places a bid on an item with 30 seconds left: 60 seconds is added to the item countdown. Item now has one minute and 30 seconds (90 seconds) left.
- Bidder places a bid on an item with 15 seconds left: 60 seconds is added to the item countdown. Item now has one minute and 15 seconds (75 seconds) left.
The Options section contains a few miscellaneous settings for how bidding is displayed.
- Show Immediate Bid Status (won/lost and winning amount) on Closed Lots: With this setting enabled your bidders will see if they won or lost an item they were bidding on immediately after that lot closes. If they were the winning bidder it will also display the amount they won the item for. If this setting is NOT enabled, the winning bidder will receive the message "You May Have Won." This option exists in case there are stipulations that bidders must abide by other than placing a winning bid (providing a bank letter, signing a contract, providing additional documentation.) It is also used if your items have Reserves which were not met and you are choosing not to display the Reserve status directly on the item.
- Bidding is Times the Money on Lots with a Quantity Greater than One: This setting changes the way that bidding is displayed on items with multiple quantity.
- Lot 1 is cataloged with a quantity of 1 and a starting bid of $100. The lead is listed as, "One Hundred Pairs of Socks." Bidders will see a lot listed with a starting bid of $100 on the entire lot.
- Lot 2 is cataloged with a quantity of 100 and a starting bid of $100. The lead is listed as, "One Hundred Pairs of Mittens." Bidders will see a lot listed with a starting bid of $1 x 100 which equals the $100 starting bid.
- Show Bid Reserve Status (Reserve Met or Reserve Not Met): If this option is enabled and you have a Reserve placed on an item, the item will display that a Reserve exists AND whether or not it has been met. It will never display the Reserve Amount. If this box is NOT enabled then no Reserve status will be displayed regardless of a Reserve actually being placed on the item.
Example of a Reserve Not Met
Example of a Reserve Met
Bid Increments
Bid Increments
The Bid Increments section allows you to set the schedule your bidders will follow when placing bids on your lots.
This example shows the default schedule that the software comes with. To edit an existing level click the Pencil Icon.
To Delete and existing level click the Red X Icon.
You will notice that you cannot delete the 9,999,999.99 increment level nor can you edit this Up To Amount. This is because HiBid has a maximum of 10 million dollars possible per item.
When you click the Pencil Icon to edit an existing bid increment you'll be directed to a new window where you will enter an Up To Amount and a Minimum Bid Increment amount.
The Up To amount should be one Increment LESS than the amount you want the include in this increment.
For example if you want the bidding to go in $5 increments UP TO $100, you will enter the up to amount as $95 and enter the Min Bid Increment as $5.
Alternatively you can enter your Up To Amount one penny less than your designated Up To Amount.
In this case you could enter up to $99.99 and the system would calculate $5 increments up to $100.
The example grid just to the right of the Up To Amounts and Increments is a very useful tool for making sure that your increments will operate the way you want them to before you upload the auction.
As you can see in the example above the bidding increases by $5 amounts until it reaches $50. Then bidding increases by $10 amount until it reaches $100. And finally, bidding increases by $50 until $1,000.
The final two settings to go over on the Details page are the options:
- Force Min Bid to Bid Increment Schedule
- Apply Bid Increments by Each
Force Min Bid to Bid Increment Schedule: When this setting is checked all bids placed by your bidders must be entered in such a way that they fall directly on an amount you indicated on your Bid Increment Schedule. This setting is commonly checked to prevent bid from having confusing dollar and cents amounts.
For example if the bidding is going in $5 amounts, the bidders must place a bid that is divisible by 5 (10,15,20,25 etc.)
If this setting is NOT checked then the bidders are only required to enter a bid that meets the next bid increment and they are given the freedom to enter any amount they wish.
For example if bidding is going in $5 amounts, the bidder must bid at least $5 more than the current high bid but they could enter an amount such as $19.42.
Apply Bid Increments by Each: If this setting is checked, the system will take your bid increments and apply it by each quantity that a lot contains.
For example a lot containing 10 quantity has a current high bid of $100 and the bid increments are going in $5 amounts. This means that the next bid would need to be $50 because the $5 increment is being applied to each of the 10 quantity.
Once all of your settings are the way you want them you can move on to building the catalog.
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