LiveAuctioneers

Warning: The lots from an auction can be exported to LiveAuctioneers only once, updating existing lots is not available at this time. Please ensure the auction contains all relevant data and pictures before exporting.

This article contains the following sections:

• Linking an Account
• Configuring an Account
• Linking and Configuring an Auction
• Special Considerations
• Exporting an Auction
• Importing Sale Data

Linking an Account

Contact LiveAuctioneers to obtain the following pieces of information:

• House ID
• API Key/Token

This information will need to be provided to a Wavebid Admin in order to link the account to LiveAuctioneers. Send the information above to support@wavebid.com. An Administrator will link everything on the company profile, which will typically take 2-3 business days. This will only need to be done once, as the account will be linked from that point forward.

Configuring an Account

After the request to link Wavebid with LiveAuctioneers has been processed, custom Bid Increments and Buyer's Premium tiers will need to be configured prior to exporting an auction.

Bid Increments

1. Navigate to My Links > Company > Accounting Settings > Bid Increments.
2. Click the Create New button.
   • To edit an existing Bid Increment table, select it from the drop-down at the top of the page.
3. Enter a Name (ex. LiveAuctioneers) for the increment table and a Description, if desired.
4. Enter a zero (0) into the first From ($) field and enter the desired increment into the first Bid Increment field.
   • The first From value on the Bid Increment table must be zero.
5. Click the Add link to add another line to the increment table. There must be exactly 10 lines in total. 
   • To remove a line from the table, click the X to the right of the value. 
   • Example:                                                                                   
6. Click the Save button.

Buyer's Premium

A Buyer's Premium scale will also need to be created at the company level in Wavebid in order for auctions to link to LiveAuctioneers.

To create a Buyer's Premium scale, navigate to My Links > Company > Accounting Settings > Scales > Buyer's Premium. For more information, see the 'Scaled Buyer's Premium' section of the Buyer's Premiums help article.

Please note that the Buyer's Premium scale created for LiveAuctioneers cannot be more than three tiers (rows) and cannot contain a percentage higher than what is allowed in LiveAuctioneers.

Once a Buyer's Premium scale is created, it can be applied to any auction. The scale does not need to be re-created again for each auction. Additional scales can be created to suite the needs of future auctions.

Linking and Configuring an Auction

The steps below must be taken in order to link an auction to LiveAuctioneers. Do not save the auction until all of the steps below have been completed.

1. Navigate to the applicable auction from the Wavebid Dashboard, then select Auction > Edit Settings.
2. Under the Auction Attributes tab, select Live Auctioneers from the Auction Software drop-down. 
3. Click in the Start Date field and use the Calendar tool to select a Start Date for the auction. Use the Hour and Minute switches to select a time. Once the date and time are selected, click the Done button.
   • The Start Date must be at least two days in the future.
4. Select the Type of Auction.                                                 

Create the auction in LiveAuctioneers and obtain the Auction ID from the auction URL. Call Wavebid to enter in the Existing External Id.

The Adv. Attribute Settings tab contains other fields required by LiveAuctioneers. Populate the form with data from the LiveAuctioneers auction and ensure the following fields are populated:

• Low Estimate & Default Value
• High Estimate & Default Value
  • Must be greater than the Low Estimate
• Listing Plan
• Content Option
• Payment Option
• Payment Methods
  • Two values are needed, if only one is selected a second one will be automatically added.

The Marketing Info tab also contains fields required by LiveAuctioneers:

• Simple Description
• Preview Notes
• Payment Info
• Terms and Conditions

Depending on the type of auction being run, select the appropriate Buyers Premium and Bid Increment from the Accounting Tab. If you select Auction Type online and Listing Plan Online Seller, the auction create will fail because of the buyer's premium. 

LiveAuctioneers supports a Sliding Scale or Cumulative Sliding Scale Buyer's Premium. Select the custom Buyer's Premium scale created above. The custom Bid Increment table should be selected here as well.

Click the Disk icon in the top right corner of the page to save.

Note that the auction information is live to the public immediately.

Please note, LiveAuctioneers does not support an auction location other than the location that is associated with the LiveAuctioneers account.

Special Considerations

The following should be taken into consideration while cataloging an event to be posted on LiveAuctioneers:

1. The Lot Title/Name may only contain 55 characters.
   • Titles longer than that will be restricted to 55 characters during the export process.
   • Only 55 characters will be sent to LiveAuctioneers.
2. Up to 3 lots can be tagged as Cover lots for an Auction. 
   • Use the Lot Rank field and select "Highlight" on up to 3 lots to select them as cover lots.
3. If a lot does not contain a Low/High Estimate, it will default to $1/$2 respectively. 
4. LiveAuctioneers will not accept more than 20 images per lot.
   • If a lot contains more than 20 images the additional images will not be displayed in the LiveAuctioneers auction.

Exporting an Auction

Since LiveAuctioneers only supports the creation of lots and not updating lots, future changes in Wavebid will not be reflected in LiveAuctioneers. The auction export will communicate with LiveAuctioneers and transfer all of the data and pictures. If the event is exported multiple times, only new lots will be pushed over to LiveAuctioneers. Updates to existing lots must be made directly within LiveAuctioneers.

1. Navigate to the applicable auction from the Dashboard, then select Auction > Export Auction.
2. Set the Lot Options.
   • Export all lots or just a range of lots.
3. Set the Catalog Options:
   • The Generate Catalog box should be checked.
   • The Upload Catalog box should be checked.
   • The Data Mapping must be LiveAuctioneers 2020. If custom mapping is selected, there is a risk that some of the lot information will not be transferred over.
   • The Save as .CSV box should be checked.
4. Set the Photo Options:
   • The Zip Photos box should be checked.
   • The New Photos Only box should not be checked.
5. Click the Export Auction button. Please allow time to process and create the lots in their servers based on size and time of the export. The Export Monitor page will provide a status of the export and indicate whether or not it was successful. For more information, see Export Monitor.
6. Navigate to LiveAuctioneers and login. The auction should be listed.

If, for some reason, the auction needs to exported manually, perform a Universal Export and then manually import the resulting files into LiveAuctioneers.

Importing Sale Data

Once an auction is complete, the auction results can be imported from LiveAuctioneers. The import of information is done in two steps.

1. The sale information import can be executed by selecting Current Auction > Accounting > Import Sale Info (auto). The action will produce a new page where any errors will be listed or a message stating the number of lots imported. Imported sale data will include which lots were sold to online bidders and the amount.
2. The buyer information import will be executed by selecting Current Auction > Accounting > Import Buyer Info (auto). The same result should be expected, an error message page or a number of buyers imported. Imported buyer information will include bidder's name and contact information necessary to send them an invoice.

Once these two imports have completed successfully, navigate to Accounting > Invoices to invoice the online bidders.

If, for some reason, the sale data needs to imported manually, see Importing Post Sale Data.

Related Articles:

• Integration Guide