This guide details how you can open your Webcast Auction for Pre-Bidding and grant direct access by hiding the Auction and providing the direct link to the Auction to select Bidders.
Hidden but Accessible
This guide is an extension of our Hiding and Reviewing your Auction on your Portal guide, as the principle and steps are similar.
As a quick reminder, you can open and review your Auction on your Portal, then tick the Hidden checkbox on the View Auctions page inside the Webtron Dashboard, and this will hide the Auction from your Portal’s Current Auctions page.
Whilst inside the Auction, you can browse the entire catalogue and share the direct link to enable your other team members to open the Auction as well. After you’ve hidden the Auction, any Bidders or other site visitors who open the Current Auctions page on your Portal won’t be able to see it.
Private Pre-Bidding works in a similar fashion, you move your Webcast Auction and Lots into Live status, open your Portal, click View Auction to open the Webcast Auction itself, copy the link from the address bar of your browser, and then hide the Auction from the Webtron Dashboard’s View Auctions page.
Opening and Hiding your Webcast Auction
Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to access your Webcast Auction on your Portal, hide it, and then share the direct link with your team members and Bidders.
Step 1 – Make sure your Webcast Auction and Lots are in Live status
From the View Auctions page in the Webtron Dashboard, double-check the status of both your Webcast Auction and your Lots, they need to be Approved to Live status or they won’t appear on your Portal. On the View Auctions page, check the Status column inside the Auctions table first:
If your Auction isn’t in Live status, click the blue Approve button underneath the Actions column, then click confirm:
Next, click on the # items link under the Items column, this will open the Auction’s Item List:
Once the Item List loads, check the Status column, your Lots have to be in Live status. If they’re in Draft status, use the checkbox at the top-left of the Item List table to select all of your Lots, then click the grey Validate button above the table:
This will move your Lots into Preview status. After doing that, or if your Lots are already in Preview status, ensure their checkboxes are still ticked, then click the grey Approve button above the table:
The Item List will now load for a moment and your Lots will move into Live status:
Step 2 – Open a new tab and navigate to your Auction Portal
Once both your Webcast Auction and Lots are in Live status, open a new tab in your browser and navigate to your Auction Portal on your website:
The “Home” page for your Portal is the Current Auctions page, your new Webcast Auction will appear on your Current Auctions page like this:
If your Webcast Auction hasn’t appeared yet, give your tab a quick refresh by pressing CTRL and R (Command and R on Mac), your Auction should appear after the page has reloaded. If it hasn’t, click here to skip ahead to the troubleshooting section of this guide.
Now that your Current Auctions page has loaded, click on the View Auction button at the bottom-right of your new Webcast Auction, or click the Auction Title to open the Auction Catalogue page.