Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, bidders need an account in order to bid on items. We require accounts so the organizers of the auction will be able to identify the winning bidders after the auction has ended.

You can accomplish this by setting each user up with the appropriate role on the Organization or Auction.

Within the organization, you can invite people to be a Coordinator. This allows them full access to everything the organization is involved in (including all auctions). Coordinators can edit the organization details, add/remove other coordinators, and create new auctions.

Within a particular auction, you can invite people to be an Organizer. This allows them to administer that specific auction, but they cannot edit the organization details or create new auctions for the organization. This is great for volunteers that are willing to upload auction items, but are not responsible for the organization.

You can access the Invite Coordinators and Invite Organizers functions from within your auction. Just click the View/Edit link on the left side of the auction items table. This brings you to the Auction details page where you will find the appropriate links on the right side of the Organization and Auction sections respectively.

This information is also summarized on the How It Works page.

You can reset your password by following these steps.

1. Click the LOGIN link in the upper right hand corner of the site
2. Click the Forgot password? link
3. Entered your email address and the security check
4. Check your email for the new password
5. Copy the new password from the email (don't include any extra spaces)
6. Click the LOGIN link in the upper right hand corner of the site
7. Enter your email address and paste the new password from the email
8. Click the Login button
9. Change your password (This is important!) via the My Account link found under the Account menu

Log into your account and use the Contact Us feature to let us know you would like to have your account removed. Please include a note letting us know why you are canceling your account. We will remove your account and send an email once the account has been removed.

As a security measure, accounts are locked for 15 minutes after there have been 3 failed login attempts. You will need to wait until the 15 minute time frame has passed before taking any additional actions on your account.

Another potential cause is the account has not been verified. When your account was first created, an email was sent which contained a link to verify your account. If you did not receive the email, or do not have the email handy, please send us a message using the Contact Us page and indicate the email address you used when registering at 32auctions.com. If we can locate the account, we will resend the verification email.

This message is displayed when trying to log into your account using the View An Auction box found on the 32auctions home page. This box is for entering the auction id and password for an auction you wish to view anonymously.

If you are trying to log into your account, you should click the Login link found in the top right corner of the 32auctions header. Clicking this link will bring you to a customer Sign In box where you enter your email address and password.

All 32auctions participants should received an email when they are outbid. You will receive the outbid email only if your bid is the leading bid and then someone outbids you. You should also receive an email when you submit a bid which confirms your bid and lets you know if you are the leading bidder.

Have you received bid confirmation emails? If your email system uses a filter or spam blocker and is picking up the emails we send, you may want to check your spam folder for the emails. Also, it might be worthwhile adding noreply@32auctions.com to your address book to ensure you receive emails from us. All messages sent from the system come from that email address.

To ensure you receive future emails from 32auctions, please add noreply@32auctions.com to your address book. This helps prevent our emails from getting flagged as spam or junk.

If you still cannot locate the confirmation email, you may want to create an account with a different email address. Our system sends all notifications (bid confirmations, outbid notices, etc) via email. Therefore, it's important to use an email address which can receive emails from us.

Yes you can! Thanks to all the requests for this feature, we have added it to the system. You can learn more about the Live Event Package feature by reading the Features & Pricing page.

Absolutely! In fact, 32auctions uses PayPal exclusively. You can learn more about these features by reading the Features & Pricing page.

You will need to set an auction id and password for inviting participants to your auction. You set these credentials on the Invite Auction Participants page. To get to this page, simply click the Invite Participants link found on the left side of your auction table.

To read more about inviting participants, please see our How It Works page.

Your auction has a 'Who can bid?' advanced setting which you should set to 'Anyone'. This allows people to join your auction and bid if they have ANY link to your auction. This includes links to the auction, individual items, auction information page, etc. They can also use the Auction Link from the Invite Participants page or enter the Auction ID and Password. You will never receive a Grant Access request with this setting.

Your auction has a 'Who can bid?' advanced setting which you should set to 'Anyone with Permission'. This requires people to use the Auction Link from the Invite Participants page or enter the Auction ID and Password to join and bid in your auction. If you want each participant to be granted access by an administrator of your auction, you should not distribute the Auction Link or Auction ID and Password. Instead, you should distribute any other link to your auction. This will require each participant to request access to join your auction using the Request Access link from any of the auction items. All administrators of the auction will receive the request via email. Granting access is as simple as clicking a link in the email.

We caution against locking down your auction to this level unless it's absolutely necessary. As an auction administrator, you will be fielding many grant access requests and may deter impulse bidding. Also, you will need to be quick with granting access at the end of the silent auction to give potential bidder's enough time to join your auction and enter their last minute bids.

Free auctions have a limit of 20 items per auction. There is a premium feature which allows for listing up to 200 items in an auction. You may upgrade an auction any time prior to the auction ending.

If you have more than 200 items, please contact us. We can increase the maximum number of items allowed beyond the 200 item limit for a nominal fee.

There currently is no way to cancel/remove/hide an auction. Here are a few suggestions to help get the desired effect of canceling or closing an auction.

If your auction has not ended, you can remove all of the unsold items. To do this, use the 'Remove Item' link within each auction item. The auction will automatically close after the end date passes. To speed up this process you can edit the auction and set the end date and time to a few minutes from now.

If your auction has ended, you cannot delete or hide the auction and you also cannot remove any of the auction items. This allows winning bidders to view the items they won and make sure the items they receive are as advertised.

Good news... you have complete control over these dates from within your auction. To edit the auction dates, click the Auction Information link found on the left side of your auction table. Then click the the Edit Auction link on the right side of the page.

Auctions hosted on 32auctions are private and require an auction id and password for participation. Typically, the auction id and password are provided by an invitation which may be sent by email, post card, flier or a link posted on a web site or social networking site. If you know someone who is hosting or participating in an auction on 32auctions, contact them to request the auction id and password.

Only auction administrators can view the list of auction participants. To view the list, click the Auction Information link on the left side of your auction. Then click the 'view' link next to the Participants count.

You can add items to the auction until the auction has ended. Once the auction ends, the ability to add items will be disabled.

During and after an auction, the auction administrators can view the Sales Summary information. There is a link on the left side of the auction table called Sales Summary. Clicking this link will bring you to a page that displays a list of the items, the winning bid amount, and the winning bidder (including their name, email, and phone number). If there is not a winning bidder, it will state that next to the item.

After the auction has ended, the highest bidder will be visible in the bid history window on the auction item. To obtain the the highest bidder's contact information, view the Participants on the auction. The participants list is viewable by clicking the 'view' link next to the number of participants on the auction information page. This only applies to auction administrators.

The best thing to do is view the auction item you won. Within the item description, there is a section called Pickup Instructions. That should explain how you can pickup and pay for your item. If you have further questions, you can contact the auction administrator listed under the Contacts section. By clicking on the contact name, you can view the administrators contact information.

Set the starting bid as the amount you need to sell the item. This will ensure a minimum price is received before the item is sold. For example, if a donated item has a cost of $1000, you can set the starting bid amount as $1000 (or higher), ensuring the cost is covered.

The system does not allow editing an item once it has bids. This protects bidders from having auction items changed substantially after they have placed a bid.

What you can do is remove the auction item by clicking the Remove Item link at the bottom of the item. This will remove the item along with any bids on the item. Then you can re-list the item by clicking the Add Item link found on the auction page. You can also email the bidder(s) to let them know the item has been re-listed and they can bid again. You can get the email address(es) for the bidder(s) by matching the bid history on the auction item with the participant list on the auction information page. Please see Where is the auction participants list?

The system used to support setting a reserve price on items. This feature was not used frequently and many times was the cause of frustration for bidders. Therefore, this feature has been removed from the system.

The purpose of a reserve price is to guarantee an item sells for a minimum amount while also allowing bidders to enter bids at a lower price. A bidder will not win an item unless their bid is at or above the reserve price. Allowing lower bids is what caused the frustration for bidders. To avoid this issue, we recommend setting the starting bid at (or above) the minimum amount you wish to sell an item.

Contact the auction administrator to inform them of the issue. You can find their contact information under the Contacts section left of the auction items table. The auction administrator can use the Contact Us feature to request support from the 32auctions team if they agree that a correction is needed. The 32auctions team requires that the auction administrator provide specific instructions for how to correct a bidding error before they will take corrective action.

A proxy bid is when you place a bid for the maximum amount you are willing to spend, then let the system bid for you up to that amount. For example, if an item is currently selling for $10 and you enter a proxy bid of $20, the system will automatically bid for you until the selling price goes over $20. At that point, you will be outbid and someone else will be the leading bidder.

A proxy bid is a single bid and only shows up in the bid history one time. The bid history always shows the highest amount the system has bid for the proxy bid. This may look weird in the bid history when multiple bids have been entered against a proxy bid.

Explanations are available for the bid types by clicking the help icon next to each on any auction item page.

Anytime the system receives 2 bids that are the same, the first bid entered into the system wins. When the bid history displays 2 bids of the same amount, the bid which was placed first is a proxy bid. When someone submits a second bid of the same amount, the first bidder continues to be the winning bidder because they were first to bid that amount.

It isn't possible to turn off or modify the bid history display, however, bidder names are displayed differently for auction administrators and participants. Auction administrators can view the full name of each bidder while participants can only see the user id. You can view the participant version by clicking the "Show Participant View" link on the bid history header.

Each bidder can make their user id as anonymous as they wish when setting up (or editing) their account via their My Account page. Each user id must be unique within the system and cannot be used by more than one person. If you want your participants to ensure anonymity, you could contact them requesting they set their user id accordingly.

Correct. Once the auction has started, you will see the bidding box. You will need to be signed in to see the bidding box.

There is no need to be a non-profit or not-for-profit organization.

There are a few limitations in place for uploading images to the site. First, the file type must be either GIF, JPG, or PNG. This means that the file name needs to end with .gif, .jpg, or .png. Second, there is a file size limit of 3 MB. You can check your file size by right clicking the image file and viewing the properties.

Errors displayed on PayPal are generally caused by an account which is not verified. Please log into your PayPal account and make sure that it is verified.

With a free silent auction, you as the auction administrator will need to arrange for payment and delivery of the items sold. Our system allows you to set pickup instructions for the auction items. Typically, we see auction administrators setting a designated time and location for the winning bidders to pick up and pay for their items. We will provide you with the name, email address, and phone number (if available) of each winning bidder so you can contact them as necessary. Our system also sends a notification to the winning bidders which contains the pickup instructions.

You can upgrade your auction to enable collecting payments and monetary donations through 32auctions. You will still need to coordinate delivery of the items with the winning bidders. See the Features & Pricing page to learn more about the payment and donation collection features.

Only coordinators of an organization can change the PayPal account. It can be changed from the Organization Information page. Just click the My Account link in the top right corner of the page, followed by clicking Manage My Organizations. Click the organization associated with the PayPal account followed by clicking the PayPal Account link. This page allows you to add or edit the PayPal account.

Refunds need to be initiated from within the PayPal account. To do this, log into the PayPal account. Locate the payment you want to refund in the recent activity. Click the details link for the payment. Click the Issue Refund link at the bottom of the page. Continue the process from there through the PayPal pages.

There are a few ways to have the proceeds from your silent auction go to a charity.

1. You can setup the auction to use your personal PayPal account for collecting payments and donations. After all payments have been collected, you can send the proceeds to the charity.
2. You can check with the charity and ask to use their PayPal account for having payments and/or donations sent directly to their account. When you enter the PayPal account into 32auctions, you will need to have the owner of the PayPal account verify it by clicking the link contained in the email we send to the PayPal account email address. After it is verified, your auction will be able to collect payments and/or donations.
3. You can ask a representative of the charity to create an organization on 32auctions. They can add their PayPal account to the organization right away. Once the organization is created, they will need to create an auction for you (by entering the name of the auction and start and end date/time) and invite you to be the organizer of the auction. As the organizer, you will have the ability to completely manage the auction, but not modify the organization. You can change the auction name, date, description, add/remove items, invite participants, upgrade features, etc.

The error could be due to a number of reasons.

If the error is "Your payment can't be completed because the receiver can't accept payments at this time", it's due to a currency issue in your auction setup. The currency chosen for your auction must match the currency on the PayPal account.

If the error is "Your payment can't be completed. Please return to the participating website and try again.", it could be due to a setting on the PayPal account. Please follow these steps to verify the account is setup properly:

1. Log into the PayPal account.
2. Click on "Profile".
3. Find "Payment Receiving Preferences" under the Security and Risk Category and click on it.
4. Change the "Block Payments for the items not sold on eBay from U.S. users who do not provide a Confirmed Address" from "Ask me" to "No" and Save.

This error occurs when your PayPal account is either not verified, not confirmed, or does not exist within PayPal. Once you have created an account in PayPal, follow their 'Get Verified' instructions to verify your account.

Please check your PayPal account and verify you have a credit card besides PayPal Plus associated to your account. PayPal is working on an issue with processing payments using PayPal Plus.

This error occurs when the currency for the PayPal account does not match the currency used in the auction. The auction administrator will need to change the PayPal account or the auction so the currencies match.

The other option is to update the currency used within the auction. To do this, click the Auction Information link found on the left side of your auction table. Then click the the Edit Auction link on the right side of the page. Select the correct currency and click the Update Auction button. Please note that it's dangerous to change the currency in a running auction. 32auctions will NOT perform a currency conversion on existing bids, starting bids, bid increments, etc.

Please refer to our Features & Pricing page.

An auction can be upgraded anytime before the auction ends.

Sometimes there is a delay with PayPal processing a payment. When this occurs, 32auctions is not notified of the payment from PayPal and cannot upgrade auction features. If your premium features do not get applied after 2 hours, please contact us.

You can learn more about our premium features by reading the Features & Pricing page.

Great! We love receiving suggestions for improving 32auctions. You can send us your ideas using the Feedback page or you can add them to the Requested Features discussion on the 32auctions Facebook Page.

Our site uses email to communicate with auction participants and administrators to inform them of relevant auction activity (auction starting, auction ending, bid confirmations, winning bid notifications, etc). At times, we will communicate directly with the auction administrators for other reasons related to the site, or their auction. The 32auctions team despises SPAM and will not allow junk mail to be sent from our site.

Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information.

We do! Click the Testimonials link found in the footer of every page.

We support Internet Explorer (7, 8, and 9) and recent versions of Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome.

We get this question a lot. Our fees are low because our goal is to help people raise money for their cause...period. Charging high fees does exactly the opposite by taking money from causes that need it.

We also have revenue from the advertisers on our site. Once again, this money is not taken away from the many charities trying to raise much needed funds.