Creating and Managing Auction Items

Applies to: GC Events with GC Auctions enabled

Roles: Events administrators with the Manage Registrations permission

Location: Events > [Your event] > Auction > Items

Time to complete: ~2 minutes per item, or ~15 minutes for a CSV import

Outcome: Your silent and live auction items are added, with images, and ready for bidders.

Summary: Add items one at a time for smaller auctions, or import them from a CSV for larger ones. Each item can have up to eight images. You can also clone items and withdraw items that are no longer available.

This article covers

• The Items tab
• Adding an item and the key item fields
• Choosing Silent or Live
• Adding images
• Importing items from a CSV
• Cloning, publishing, and withdrawing items
• What you can edit once bidding starts

The Items tab

Go to Auction > Items. The list shows each item's Type, Starting bid, Current bid, number of Bids, and Status. Use the All, Silent, and Live filters or Search items... to find an item. Withdrawn items are hidden unless you check Show withdrawn.

Each row's menu has Edit and View timeline. The timeline is a full history of bid attempts on that item, which is handy for troubleshooting.

Step 1: Add an item

1. Select Add item.
2. Fill in the item details (see the field list below).
3. Select Save item.

Key item fields

Note: The first time you add a live item, GC Auctions asks you to confirm turning on Review Winners. Live auctions always go through admin review before winners are notified.

Step 2: Add images

Each item can hold up to eight images. Supported formats are JPEG, PNG, and GIF, up to 10 MB each.

1. In the item form, select Add image (or Add your first image).
2. Enter alt text for each image. Alt text is required so screen readers can describe the image to bidders using assistive technology.
3. The first image is the Primary image shown in the catalog. To change it, select Set as primary on another image.

You can also Edit alt text or Remove an image at any time.

Step 3 (optional): Import items from a CSV

For larger auctions, import items in bulk:

1. On the Items tab, select Import CSV.
2. Download the template ("Click here to download a CSV file in the necessary structure and format.").
3. Fill in one row per item. Review Formatting Instructions in the import panel.
4. Upload your completed file. You can upload up to 100 rows per file, and files can be up to 20 MB.

Template columns:

• Title*
• Starting Bid*
• Description
• Bid Increment*
• Reserve Price
• Fair Market Value*
• Auction Type
• Donor Name
• Donor Display Name
• Donor Email
• Donor Type
• = required

Formatting tips:

• Enter numbers only, with no dollar signs or commas. Starting Bid and Bid Increment must be whole dollars.
• Auction Type is "silent" or "live." Leave it blank for silent.
• If you fill in any donor detail, Donor Name is required. Donor Type is "individual" or "organization."
• Save the file as CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited).

Important: Images can't be imported by CSV. Add images to each item manually after the import. Don't add extra columns (like an image column), because an unsupported column causes the whole file to be rejected.

When the import finishes, you'll see how many items were created and how many rows were skipped, with the reason for each skipped row. Only re-upload the rows that failed. Re-uploading successful rows creates duplicate items.

Step 4: Publish items

New items start as Pending. On the item's edit page, select Publish to make it visible to bidders. If you add items after your auction is already in preview or open for bidding, they're published automatically.

Clone an item

To create a similar item quickly, open the item's edit page and select Clone item under Item actions. The clone opens as a new item titled "[Original title] (copy)."

A clone copies the title, description, starting bid, bid increment, reserve price, and fair market value. It doesn't copy images, donor information, or the Silent/Live section. Clones always start as Silent, so switch the section if you're cloning a live item.

Withdraw an item

If an item is no longer available, open its edit page and select Withdraw item. The item is removed from bidder views immediately.

Important: Withdrawing an item voids all of its bids and can't be undone. The bids stay in the audit trail but won't result in a sale.

You can withdraw Pending or Published items from the edit page. After bidding ends, use Withdraw item in Review Winners instead.

Items can't be deleted. Withdraw an item to remove it from the auction.

What you can edit once bidding starts

Keywords: auction items, add item, CSV import, bulk upload, item images, clone item, withdraw item, fair market value, reserve price, bid increment, starting bid, silent item, live item