Running an in-person auction

A normal auction, you can also run auctions completely online.

How a club auction runs

Who does what

A monthly meeting auction needs two people and a laptop. A big annual auction needs two or three laptops at the door and at checkout, a printer, two fast bid recorders, a treasurer, a couple of announcers or auctioneers, and plenty of runners.

Why everyone pays at the end

Some clubs have buyers pay cash for each lot as it's won. It's slower and it goes wrong:

• The auction waits while somebody makes change, 200 times.
• Every payment is a chance to take the wrong amount, or none.
• Sellers still have to be paid, so somebody adds it all up afterwards anyway.
• A seller who also bought pays and gets paid separately, instead of the difference.

With checkout at the end, every invoice is already added up. Each person pays once, or is paid once, and it takes seconds.

1. Create the auction

1. Click Auctions at the top of the page, then Create a new auction, then Create a club auction.
2. Pick the date and start time, and a name. The name becomes the link and can't be changed, so get the year right.
3. Click Create in-person auction. Done this before? Copy your last auction instead: same rules and location, new date.
4. Under More, click Location and put the hall on the map. Add parking and which door to use to the description.

The Finish setting up box on your auction page ticks off what's done. First auction? Click Contact us and request access there before you can promote it or have invoices emailed.

2. Set the rules

Click Rules under More. What the auction rules do covers every setting. The ones that matter most in person:

• Bidding opens is the time on your flyer. Doors at 9, bidding at 11? Put 11 here.
• Lot submission ends: an hour or two before the start, so nobody's typing in lots while you set up. You can still add lots for people after it closes.
• The fees. "$1 + 30%" is common. A 10% pre-registration discount gets sellers doing their own typing.
• Charging members less? Set up the alternate split.

The unsold lot fee is only charged on lots you end unsold on Set lot winners. A lot the seller left at home, or that never reached the table, costs nothing.

3. Bidders and bidder numbers

Everyone who buys or sells needs to be on the Users tab. People who join through the site add themselves. Everyone else, you add. At in-person auctions here, 19% of people join on the day.

1. Type their name in the search box on the Users tab. Already there? You're done.
2. If not, click Create user under the empty search. It fills in the name you typed.
3. As you type, the site offers the email, phone and address from your past auctions. Check it's the right person.
4. Only a name is required. An email is worth having: it's how they get their invoice.

Adding lots of people at once

Open the menu next to Add user:

• Bulk add users: type them in, one per row. Import from old auctions brings last year's people, with the same bidder numbers.
• Import from CSV: a spreadsheet with columns named Email, Name, Bidder number, Phone, Address, Club member, Allow bidding, Memo and Admin. Only the ones you have. Importing again updates people; nobody is deleted.
• Set up Google Drive sync: the same columns in a Google Sheet shared as "anyone with the link can view". Sync pulls in changes whenever you like.

Bidder numbers

They're handed out automatically.

• Paddles: hand them out from the top of the pile and change each person's number to match. Or import your roster with a Bidder number column.
• No paddles? Print paddles under More makes one for each person out of a sheet of paper: their number, big, on both sides of the fold.
• Same number every time: a person keeps their number in all your auctions.
• Words work: Initials, or first names at a small auction where everyone knows everyone.
• Keep them three digits. This helps reduce typos: a bid recorder isn't likely to think 819 is a sell price. Unless your club sells better fish than mine, anyway.
• The list sorts numbers as text, so 10 comes before 9.

Duplicates happen anyway. Type "duplicate" in the search box. Keep the one with the invoice, and use Merge with... in the other one's Actions menu.

4. Helpers and auction admins

1. Your helper makes an account and joins the auction: Join auction at the bottom of the auction page.
2. On the Users tab, click their name and tick Grant admin permissions to help run this auction.

Admins can do everything you can, all at once on their own devices. Admin history, under More, shows who changed what.

5. Getting lots in

The best lots are the ones sellers add themselves before the day. They get the pre-registration discount, the labels are already on the bags, and people browse them at home. On this site they sell for about 5% more than lots typed in at the desk. Send sellers Taking part in an in-person auction.

For everyone else, you add their lots: Add lots next to their name on the Users tab. The add lots page is a grid, one lot per row, that saves as you type. Type the name, press Tab, move on. A good typist does ten lots a minute.

• Check the name at the top before you start. Lots can't be moved to a different person afterwards.
• Donations and vendor lots: a user for each vendor ("Main Street Pets donation"), with no email, so you know what each gave.
• Need a description or quantity? Full editor on a row opens the whole lot.
• A spreadsheet of lots? Import lots from CSV, on the Lots tab: Name, Email, Lot Name, Description, Quantity, Reserve Price, Buy Now Price, Category, Breeder Points and Donation.

6. Labels

A printed label on every bag saves more time than anything else here. Lot labels covers printers and paper. In short:

• Sellers who pre-register print their own.
• You print the rest from Print labels under More, or per person from Print labels on the Users tab.

7. Check-in at the door

Run two lines: people who registered, who just need their number, and walk-ins, who need adding. Big auctions add a third for sellers with lots to add.

Look each person up on the Users tab and hand them a card or paddle with their number. Print a walk-in's paddle with Print paddle in their Actions menu.

• Checkin: scan a member's card with a phone camera or a USB scanner.
• Self-checkin, under More: a laptop and scanner by the door, and members scan their own card.
• People with the phone app can check themselves in as they arrive, if the rules allow it.
• A guest with no card: add them as a new user, which checks them in.

Barcodes and scanners has which scanners work and what else they can do. With check-in on, Door prizes picks a random checked-in person for each prize.

8. Selling: the auctioneer's table

Your recorder sits next to the auctioneer with Set lot winners open (under More). For every lot:

1. Type the lot number. The photo and name come up, so you know it's the right bag.
2. Type the price.
3. Type the winner's bidder number.
4. Press Enter.

The page catches the usual mistakes before they reach an invoice, like a lot number that doesn't exist or a bidder nobody has. Undo takes back the last one.

95% of lots sold here are recorded once and never changed. A second recorder catches the rest: their entry says "This lot has been double checked", or warns that it's different and offers to undo the first. It works from paper slips afterwards, too.

Voice can do the recording: tap Listen in the phone app or a browser, keep the microphone near the auctioneer, and call the auction as usual. "Sold to 104 for 15" is saved as it's said. The voice log shows what the phone heard.

The lot queue

Lot queue, under More, is the running order. A runner adds each bag as it comes to the table: a USB scanner on the lot's QR code, Scan with camera on a phone, or the lot number and Add.

The lot marked Selling now is on the block. The queue moves on by itself:

• Record that lot on Set lot winners, sold or End lot unsold, and the next lot moves up, skipping any after it that are already recorded.
• Set lot winners fills in the next lot number for you. Each recorder works down the queue at their own pace, so a second recorder, or one catching up from paper slips, never loses their place.
• A lot sold out of turn is recorded as usual, and the queue stays where the room is.

By hand:

With Allow push notifications for watched lots on, people watching a lot get a notification when it's one of the next ten, and another when it's selling. Without the queue, the notification goes out when the bid recorder types the lot number, so type it in when bidding starts, not after.

Photos and a projector

A lot's photo on a big screen gives the back of the room something to bid on.

At the 30 promoted in-person auctions here that sold $5,000 or more:

1. Plug a laptop into the projector or a TV, and sign in as an auction admin.
2. Open the Lot queue and click Fullscreen current lot, then Go fullscreen.
3. That's it. The screen follows the queue, whoever moves it and from whichever device.

Fullscreen queue, on the queue page, shows the lot selling now and the next few, for a room that likes to know what's coming.

Bumps

Plenty of clubs let a buyer pay a few dollars to move a lot up the queue. Every club does it differently, so there's no button for it. An AI agent can do it for you. Tell it your club's rule once, or save it as a skill, then say:

Bump lot 5 for bidder 325.

The agent finds bidder 325's invoice, adds a $3 bump fee as an adjustment, and moves lot 5 to the top of the queue.

Keeping the room

About two lots a minute is a good pace. Prices drop as the day goes on and people leave.

• Swap in a fresh auctioneer.
• Put dry goods on a silent auction table instead of selling them out loud.
• Use buy now prices.
• Save the door prizes for later in the day.

9. Checkout and payment

Open Checkout under More. Type a bidder number or name. Their total comes up: what they owe, or what the club owes them, and how many unsold lots they're taking home. Take the money, click Paid, next.

• Card payments: with Square connected, the screen shows a QR code. The buyer pays on their own phone and the invoice marks itself paid. With the phone app, Tap to Pay takes the card on yours. See Card payments.
• Cash or check: type "cash" or "check #1041" in the invoice's Memo box. Only admins see it.
• T-shirts, raffle tickets, memberships: open the invoice, Adjustments, Charge extra. Or scan a barcode for them.

Clicking Paid emails the person their invoice as a receipt, if they have an email.

A seller who wants to leave early: take what they owe for what they bought, add a Discount for that amount ("paid before leaving"), and leave the invoice open. When their lots sell, it shows what the club owes them.

Letting people bid online too

Turn on Online bidding and people can bid on the site before and during the auction.

Where it does work:

• A silent auction for dry goods. Put them on a table with labels. People scan a label's QR code and bid on their phones. At the end, search the Lots tab for them and click Sell lots to online high bidder. A custom checkbox called "Silent auction" makes them easy to find.
• Pre-sales. Set online bidding to buy now only, and require a buy now price. People buy before the day, and those lots never reach the auctioneer.

Set lot winners shows the online high bidder as you type each lot number. On the Lots tab, "hasbids" in the search box finds lots with online bids, and "qrviewed" finds lots whose winner scanned the label.

Things that go wrong on the day

After the auction

Pay the sellers. Most clubs mail a check within a week or two, to the address on the seller's invoice. Filter the Users tab by Club owes. No address? Ask before you write the check. Why there's no payout button.

Stats shows how the day went: what the club made, how prices held up hour by hour, and how many people were there for the first time. If your stats disagree with the invoices, open the invoices page once; stats catch up after.

About 8% of lots going unsold is normal at an in-person auction here.

The Users CSV (under Export on the Users tab) and Export lot CSV (on the Lots tab) have everything, for the treasurer or your breeder award program.

Next year's auction

Open this year's auction, click More, then Copy to new auction. Rules, fees, location and custom fields come along; lots never do. Then:

1. Set the new date, and check the location's details.
2. Bring people over: Bulk add users, then Import from old auctions. They keep their bidder numbers.
3. Tick Promote this auction. Copies are never promoted.