Running an online auction

The big picture

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 bidding starts, and a name. The name becomes the link and can't be changed, so get the year right.
3. Click Create online auction. Ran one before? Copy it instead: same rules and locations, new dates.

The Finish setting up box at the top of your auction page lists what's left, and ticks things off as you go.

2. Set where lots change hands

Under More, click Location, then Add pickup location.

Edit a location any time. You can delete one until somebody picks it, as long as it isn't the only one.

3. Set the rules

Click Rules under More. What the auction rules do has every setting. For a first online auction, get these right:

1. The rules text: how to pay, and what can't be sold.
2. The dates. About a week of bidding is plenty.
3. The fees. "$1 unsold lot fee, 20% club cut" is a good start.
4. Payment instructions: what people should do when their invoice arrives.
5. Promote this auction, once you're ready for strangers to see it.

The share of lots that sell at a typical online auction here:

The unsold lot fee is charged on every lot that doesn't sell. Online, a lot either gets a bid or it doesn't, so there's nothing for you to decide.

Then join your own auction, like everyone else: scroll to the bottom of the auction page, tick Yes, I will be at this auction, pick your pickup location, and click Join auction.

4. Get people to join

Nobody can bid or add lots until they join, and joining is the step people miss. 12% of people here join an online auction in its last day. Every invite should say:

Make an account, open the auction, scroll to the bottom and click Join auction.

• Share the link. The Copy button at the bottom of the auction page copies it.
• Flyers. Putting up fliers at your local fish stores is a great idea. Attract younger people with a QR code, just make sure to put tear off tabs at the bottom for normal people, too.
• Promote it. Promoted auctions are listed publicly, and nearby people who asked to hear about auctions get told once.
• Reminders happen by themselves. People who look at your auction without joining get a nudge a day later.
• Facebook. Post it on your club's page and in local groups. Advertising an auction is fine; selling fish on Facebook is what gets posts taken down. A few dollars of local ads brings in real new members.

A lot sells for what it's worth when at least two people really want it. One interested bidder means a $2 sale, and a few of those drag down the whole auction. So you want more people, and more lots worth fighting over:

• Ask every vendor you know for a donation, and list those first.
• Get three or four serious breeders to list on day one.
• A few must-have lots with low opening bids bring people in, and then they bid on everything else.

5. Lots come in

Members add their own. Taking part in an online auction walks them through it; send them the link.

• Adding lots for somebody: on the Users tab, click Add lots next to their name. Admins aren't held to the lot limit or the dates, so this is how you add the club's donations early.
• Everything, in one list: the Lots tab. This is admins only.
• A lot that breaks your rules: its menu has Remove or refund. Tick remove, give a reason, and the lot and its bids are gone.
• What people are asking: Chat messages, under More, shows every question on every lot. Delete anything nasty.

A seller can edit or delete their own lot until someone bids or lot submission ends. After that it's yours to deal with.

Photos matter. On this site, 92% of lots with a photo sell, against 90% of lots without one. Nag your sellers.

6. Bidding, and the last few minutes

You don't have to do anything while bidding is open. Bidders get an email when they're outbid, and one before lots they're watching end.

Most bids come in on the last day. A bid in the last 15 minutes pushes that lot's end back 15 minutes, up to an hour past the auction's end, so there's no point sniping. About 29% of sold lots on this site end late because of it.

Stats, under More, shows views, bids and new lots as they happen. Views flat halfway through? Post the link again.

7. Invoices and getting paid

Everyone who bought or sold gets one invoice, and it nets out. A seller who sold $135 and bought $20 is owed $115. They're all on the Users tab (the invoices page is the same list). Click a name to open one.

1. After bidding ends, look over the invoices.
2. Add anything extra: open an invoice, Adjustments, then Charge extra or Discount, with a note. $8 for postage, $20 for a membership, $30 off for the volunteer who drove.
3. Click Set open invoices to ready at the top of the Users tab. Do it soon: people need time to pay before pickup day.

How people pay

Who hasn't paid? Filter the Users tab by Owes the club and Ready. Email all users writes to whoever the filter shows.

Paying sellers: most clubs mail a check, to the address on the seller's invoice, within a week or two of pickup. Waiting a few days means a dead fish can be refunded out of the seller's share, not the club's. Why there's no payout button.

8. Pickup day

1. The day before, check every buyer picked the right location. One 200 miles from home is probably a misclick. Email them.
2. Print the invoices for your location. They say what each person bought, sold, and whether they've paid.
3. Remind sellers to label their bags: lot number, winner, and where it's going. No printer? Marker on the bag.
4. Bring coolers labelled by lot number: 1–99, 100–199 and so on. Sellers drop bags in, buyers take theirs out. Twenty minutes, and nobody hunts for bag 347.
5. Mark people paid as they settle up.

A bag with only a lot number on it? Open the lot on your phone to see who won it. Someone else can pick up for a buyer; they need the name on the invoice.

When somebody doesn't pay or doesn't show

Usually one or two people an auction. On the Users tab, open the person's Actions menu and click Problems. It lists everything they bought and sold, and one button refunds their lots, leaves negative feedback, and bans them from your future auctions.

More than one pickup location

Neighbouring clubs can run one big auction together, each with its own pickup location. More lots and more buyers mean better prices than any of them would get alone.

1. Each location gets a coordinator: one of your admins, set as its contact person.
2. Morning: sellers drop off at their location. Each coordinator checks every bag is labelled and drives them to a central spot, like a park-and-ride.
3. Sort the lots by where they're going, away from buyers and sellers. Each coordinator drives their location's lots home.
4. Evening: buyers pick up at their own location.

Set each location's Pickup time to the morning drop-off and Second pickup time to the evening. The auction page lists each location's Incoming lot list and Outgoing lot list. Print both for every coordinator: they're the checklist.

• Give yourself an hour's slack between locations. Somebody is always late.
• Two locations with the same pickup time can't send lots to each other.
• Take payment before pickup, so a no-show isn't holding a bag that drove 100 miles.
• Leave tanks and other bulky things out. They don't fit in a coordinator's car.

Reports, and who changed what

Only you and your other admins can see these.

Other admins

An admin can do everything you can, including marking invoices paid. Pickup coordinators and the treasurer usually need it.

1. They join the auction.
2. Find them on the Users tab and click their name.
3. Tick Grant admin permissions to help run this auction.

Next year's auction

Open this year's auction, click More, then Copy to new auction. Rules, fees, locations and custom fields come along; lots never do. People only come if Copy users when copying this auction is on. Then:

1. Set the new dates.
2. Check each pickup location's time.
3. Tick Promote this auction. Copies are never promoted.

A test auction you're done with: remove its lots, then Delete auction under More. An auction with lots in it can't be deleted.