Transitioning to an Online Auction
An Online Auction or your Donate Now page can be useful tools for selling any remaining spaces in Signup parties, extra quantity of Sellable items and/or repositioned Silent items that did not receive any bids during your Gala.
1. If you just have a few different fixed price items remaining to sell, it may be simpler to offer them on your Donate Now Page. Only the item name(s) will display, but you can describe the available items (with images) in the text box at the top of the page.
2. If you haven't used the online auction feature on your site yet, you'll need to configure the settings and review/edit the email messages.
3. Edit the items you want to offer online:
- Check the "For Sale at: Online Auction" box
- Specify opening and closing times (easiest to bulk edit all closing times after the other edits are completed on all items.)
- Since the item did not receive any bids at the Gala, reduce the minimum bid amount.
- If the item is a lot, consider breaking apart the lot and selling items individually.
4. Hide any items you do not want displayed in the public catalog:
- If you're setting up a new online auction, you can simply configure your display settings so the public can only see Online items by setting the catalog default view to Online and disabling the button bar.
- If you have other online items you don't wish to display, select the items to hide, then bulk edit to Public? = No.
4. Promote! Make sure your supporters know that these items are still available and provide links to the catalog for easy access.