Upload Catalog To Internet

Auction Flex allows you to easily upload your catalog and take bids via the internet. Use the following steps to upload your catalog.

Start by clicking the Upload button near the bottom left of your Auction Lots & Preview listing.

General Settings

After you click the Upload button in your Auction Lots & Preview listing, you should see the window below, with the General tab selected.

The General tab allows you to:

Adjust important auction information and dates
Opt to show the final lot numbers and whether or not to make the auction visible on HiBid.com
List the terms and conditions for this sale
Set the buyer premiums with a short explanation
List the payment options
Indicate how shipping/pick-up is handled
Set the location where the auction is being held

Adjust Registration Settings

Click the Registration button. The Registration tab allows you to set the Internet Bidder Registration type:

Additional features on this tab:

Required Last CC Authorization In Days – If you choose Registration with Credit Card info, a fee could be assessed per the IWS agreement. This charge is based on the number of bidders who need authorization for that auction.

You can limit the number of re-authorizations and fees by adjusting the Request Last CC Authorization In Days field. The longer you leave a credit card authorized (default is 120 days), the less chance there is that you will need to re-authorize that card, but the greater the potential exposure to canceled or maxed cards.

You can use this feature to register your bidders online for your traditional auctions, as well, by not enabling internet bidding.

Allow Registration With MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Or Discover – Only check the credit cards you will accept. If you don’t accept Discover, then you wouldn’t want to allow someone to register for your auction with a Discover card.

Upon Successful Registration Automatically Create A Permission For The Bidder For The Amount – The purpose of having a bidder register for your auction with a credit card is so they don’t have to wait to leave their bid(s). This field permits you to limit how high of a bid they can leave without your having to edit their record and further increase their bid(s). Most customers set this to 9,999,999.99 as they don’t need to limit bidding. However, if you have a few high-end items in your auction and wish to ensure that only “super-qualified” bidders are allowed to bid on it, this option facilitates that requirement.

Adjust Bidding Settings

Click the Bidding button to access the Bidding tab. Here you can adjust online bidding settings:

Adjust Lot Closing Settings

Click the Stagger button to access the Lot Stagger tab. Establishing a stagger will close subsequent lots after the first by a certain number of seconds.

If you choose X to equal 10 seconds, and your auction consists of 100 lots, then the last lot will close 1,000 seconds after the first lot closes.

Here you have the option to:

Set Stagger By Auction
Set Stagger By Lot

Adjust Soft Close Settings

Click the Soft Close button to access the Soft Close tab. A soft close will prevent a last-minute bidder from “sniping” a lot away from a previously active bidder.

Setting a soft close for your lots means that any bid entered during the time selected will extend the bidding for that lot by that amount of time.

Setting a Linked Soft Close Group means, for example, if tractors are linked in a group, a bidder who is bidding on a tractor will extend bidding for all tractors in the auction if one tractor is affected by the soft close feature.

Use AuctionZip

Click the Other Sites button to access the AuctionZip tab.

AuctionZip allows you to upload auction information to AuctionZip.com using your existing AuctionZip login information. (If you don’t have such a login, you would need to create one prior to using this feature.) AuctionZip can require information in the Description field, and the date must be set to a future date.

Miscellaneous Options

Click the Miscellaneous button for additional options:

Only Upload Items Where Minimum Presale Estimate allows you to exclude your low-dollar lots; to do so, you must enter a presale estimate for every log
Only Upload Lots In The Lot Range allows you to specify such a range
Suppress Uploading Of Pre-Sale Estimates prevents Auction Flex from uploading your estimates; there is also an option in HiBid to hide presale estimates
Hide Time Left Until Auction can be used if, for example, you are taking internet absentee bids for a live auction and would prefer that those bidders not see when the auction is taking place

Post-Auction Settings

It’s easy to show the prices realized after an auction. Start by clicking the Post Auction button.

Simply check the Upload Prices Realized (After The Auction) checkbox, choose the additional options that best suit your needs, make sure your items have been invoiced within the Auction Flex program, and click Upload / Update to re-upload the auction.