You may find that Nestor has given you a particularly valuable cat that you aren't sure what to sell for. You ask around and people tell you to run an auction for them since they have a lot of genes that make them incredibly rare, and people may be willing to fight for this cat.

But, you've never run an auction before. So where do you start? How do you successfully run one?

First, let's start off with some auction terminology:

1. SB - Starting Bid. This is the lowest a bid can be.
   
2. MI - Minimum Increase. The minimum amount bids can increase by (to prevent people from bidding with 1 note increments).
   
3. CB - Current Bid. Whatever the current bid on the cat is.
   
4. AB - Autobuy. A price someone can bid and they automatically win the auction.
   
5. Snipe Guard - a recurring extension of the auction. A Snipe Guard's purpose is to prevent someone making a higher bid than the CB at the last possible moment, giving the person who was "sniped" no chance to bid higher.
   
6. LDP - Last Day Ping. Anyone requesting a LDP would like to be pinged on the final day of the auction.
   
7. Partial - items/cats/etc. accepted at "partial" value. Some auctioneers allow for mixed-payment in cats or items and not just notes.
   

Here are some tips on how to structure your auction. You don't need to follow them to a T or at all, but they may help your auction be more successful. Note, I use "cat" throughout this guide, but you can use these tips for any auction.

Make your Starting Bid the lowest you'd take for a cat
The Starting Bid is going to be the lowest bid on your cat, so you shouldn't set this for lower than you'd take. For example, if you wouldn't accept an offer of 10,000 notes on your cat because you think it's too low, don't set your SB for 10,000 notes or lower.

Do not use a "hidden reserve" or allow anonymous bidding
A "hidden reserve" is a value that the auction must reach or it will be canceled. Essentially, it's a secret Starting Bid. You won't get an account penalty for having one, but you will make a lot of people upset by canceling an auction that doesn't get as high as you'd like it to. This may negatively affect future auctions that you run.

If you are going to use a "hidden reserve," be upfront about it, so people who don't like them don't waste their time.

"Anonymous bidding" is the act of accepting bids from people via private messages or other private channels that are off-site. This is an act that isn't fair for your bidders, since it's not something that can be verified by them. Additionally, with auctions being time-sensitive, a bidding war would be convoluted if someone exclusively continued to bid on your auction through this private channel.

Use a generous Snipe Guard
A Snipe Guard prevents people from "sniping" an auction at the last possible moment, which prevents people from bidding higher on your cat. In the interest of fairness to all parties involved, use a Snipe Guard to extend the auction and allow people time to continue to bid.

The Snipe Guard I use is 2 hours.

Run your auction for 1-2 weeks, maximum
Running your auction for at least a week gives interested parties time to gather funds to make bids. A majority of the action for your auction will happen during the final hours. People aren't going to commence a bidding war when there's 5 days left since the CB can sit and they can, hopefully, pay less.

Running an auction for too long may cause people to not be super interested in it.

Be upfront with how you value Partials
Not everyone is going to value things the same, so if you do accept Partials, be upfront with how you value them, and honor that for the duration of the auction. For example, if you accept Business Cards as Partial, be upfront with how you value them, as some people value them more expensive or cheaper than you. Being upfront allows everyone to be on the same page when it comes to mathing things out.

Do not cancel or otherwise extend your auction if you're not happy with the outcome
This is, functionally, the same as having a "hidden reserve," but it's important to lay it out in this wording as well, since you may not start an auction with a "hidden reserve" in mind. Honor your bidders and accept the outcome, then learn for next time how to better your auction.

If you're afraid that you will be unhappy with the outcome, consider running a flat-sale instead.

An auction isn't one-sided; many people can bid on your auction! Here are some tips for bidders.

Bid only what you have, and don't rescind your bid
It's important to be upfront with what you're able to afford. Don't bid on a cat if you don't have the funds to afford them. It's not fair to everyone else to artificially inflate the price, not to mention against the Community Guidelines.

Rescinding your bid or backing out at the last moment, if you have the CB, also isn't fair to the auctioneer. Definitely make sure you want this cat before you bid on it. It's fine to bow out of bidding wars, but it's not very nice to back out when there isn't much time left, or the auction has ended and the auctioneer is waiting for you to add to the trade.

Read the auction rules carefully
Keep in mind SB, MI, CB, and AB. Make sure to read carefully to see if the auction accepts Partials, payment plans, or has a "hidden reserve." Not every auction will be run the same.

Ping who you outbid
As a courtesy, ping the person you outbid, so they get an alert that someone did outbid them. Some auctions won't accept your bid if you don't ping the person you outbid, so keep this in mind, as well.

Want to run an auction, but don't know how to format it? Here's a simple template that I use for mine. Due to it using the code tag, make sure you enclose the LDP pings if you use them as the copy/paste code doesn't include them.

Feel free to edit this to suit you needs!

Auction Rules:

1. All bids must be posted publicly.
   
2. Ping the person you outbid. I am subscribed; no need to ping me when bidding.
   
3. Bids must follow the minimum increase.

This auction ends on Month Day, Year at 00:00 site time. There is a recurring 2-hour snipe guard.

LDP list