How an auction works
Customers pay a small bid fee from their wallet for every bid. A bid can never cost more than the customer has available. When the auction ends, the leading bidder wins, unless the winning bid is below your reserve price; then nobody wins.
Winners are notified automatically. A physical prize is claimed through the cart at the winning price, a digital one is downloaded, and a coin prize goes straight to the wallet.
The six auction types
| Type | Result |
|---|---|
| English | The highest bid. |
| Reverse | The lowest bid. Each bid must undercut the lowest by the bid step, and never go under the lowest price it sells for, which the form asks you to set. |
| Sealed | The highest bid, at its own amount; of equal bids, the earliest. Bids stay hidden until the end, and a customer can bid more than once. |
| Penny | The leading bidder when the clock runs out. Each bid raises the price by the bid step and adds time to the clock. |
| Lowest unique | The lowest amount that only one person bid. |
| Highest unique | The highest amount that only one person bid. |
The form shows only the fields a type uses. For example, a penny auction has no starting bid, a reverse auction has no reserve price, and the bid step applies to English, reverse and penny auctions.
Create an auction
- Add a category
Auctions Categories. You need at least one.
- Start a new auction
Open Auctions All Auctions and choose New auction.
- Pick the item
Create it right there (name, description, retail price, up to five photos, physical or digital), or choose one from your item library.
- Set the rules
Choose the type, then set the bid fee, start and end time, starting bid and bid step. If you like, add a maximum bid, time added per late bid and a reserve price.
- Save
It goes live at its start time.
Auction tools
Each tool is its own plugin, and all of them come with PrizeX Standard. Most are set on the auction's own form, so you choose per auction. An auction that doesn't use a tool works exactly as before.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Buy Now | A fixed price to skip bidding, paid through the normal cart. By default, on English and penny auctions it disappears once bidding reaches that price; on sealed and unique-bid auctions it disappears with the first bid; on reverse auctions it stays until the item sells. To change these rules store-wide, use Auctions Buy Now rules. |
| Anti-Snipe | A trigger window and an extension, for example: a bid in the last 2 minutes adds 5 more. The end moves the moment a qualifying bid lands. |
| Auto-Bidder | Customers set a limit (a maximum price, a floor price or a number of bids) and the system bids for them until it's reached. Works on English, reverse and penny auctions. |
| Buyer's Premium | A percentage added to the winning bid, charged once when the auction settles. |
| Unlock Fee | A one-time fee, paid from the wallet, before someone can bid on that auction. It's never charged again for the same auction. |
| Auction Shipping | A flat shipping fee, added in the cart, at checkout and when a win is claimed. |
| Notify Me | A bell button on upcoming auctions. Subscribers get one email when the auction starts. |
Customers can also hand you items to sell by auction with the Auction Consignment add-on, sold separately.
Live bidding
The auction page shows new bids without reloading. On any hosting, open pages check for news every few seconds. Connect the Realtime plugin to a WebSocket server and news reaches every open page as it happens; First setup shows how.
When an auction ends
A scheduled job closes ended auctions every minute, so the scheduled task must be running. Winners are listed under Auctions Winners, and every bid under Auctions Bids.
Cancelling an auction from the list refunds every bid fee to the bidders' wallets. Once a winner is declared, the auction can no longer be cancelled.
Something wrong or unclear on this page? Tell us at [email protected], or see how to get help.