This article provides information for how to change an item from a Silent Auction item to a Live Auction item.
In some situations, it can beneficial to move an item from a Silent Auction item to a Live Auction item. Though Handbid allows for this change to take place, we caution you that you should communicate this move with all bidders, especially those who may be actively bidding on the item(s) being moved. Here are some steps and considerations.
This can get tricky, so please make sure that you really want to change this item over to live from silent before going through this process.
CAUTION: To do this conversion, your auction must be open during the Live or you must change the status of the item to pending before you close your auction. If you close the silent auction and the item is open and has a bid on it, it will be a marked as SOLD to the highest bidder and this will not work how you intend. Notify all bidders on an item with your intentions of switching the item types.
Notify all bidders currently bidding on the item that this item will be moved to the live auction at some point. Inform them that starting bid will be the highest current bid from the silent, but max bids will be honored.
In this scenario using a broadcast message will be one of the best ways to notify your bidder of the item change you can also send a direct message to whoever has the highest bid or a max bid on the item.
How to Send a Broadcast Message How to Send a Message to an Individual Bidder
CONFIRM THE PRICE WHERE YOU WILL START THE LIVE BIDDING
In addition, if an item has a higher max bid on it, you would need to honor that as you start bidding on the item.
For example, if an item was currently at $1,000 with a bid increment of $100 with a max bid set at $1,500 in the silent auction, you would start the item at $1,000 (the current high bid).
If the current max bid holder ($1,500) was in the room, you would need to confirm that they continued to bid. If they are not present, then you would need to bid on their behalf up to their max bid price.
CONVERT THE ITEM TO A LIVE AUCTION ITEM
Before you start the bidding in the Live auction on the item, you need to convert the item to a LIVE AUCTION item. To change the item status, click on the item to edit it, and change its status. Then hit "UPDATE" to update its new status.
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Once you hit update, you may want to confirm on a phone that the item has changed its status to live. You can pull/refresh the auction on the app if you don't see the status updated to LIVE.
ENTERING IN THE FINAL BID
Any item that is a live auction item will be marked as sold as soon as a final bid is put on it. To place a bid on the live item, follow the instructions here in the knowledge base on how that process works (click on the hammer icon at the top of the item detail, enter in the Paddle ID and the final bid price and place the bid).
Once the bid has been placed, the item will be marked "SOLD" and added to the winner's invoice.
If you don't convert the item to a LIVE auction item, the item will not be marked as sold until the auction closes. This would allow people to continue to bid on the item after the live auction, which is not likely what you want to do.