👋 What is a Paper Auction?
A paper auction allows your guests to place bids using printed bid sheets at your in-person event, instead of online bidding. After collecting the sheets, you’ll manually enter the winning bids into ClickBid.
We do not recommend opening your silent auction for online bidding before your in-person paper auction. Doing so may cause confusion among bidders and complicate your workflow.
⚙️ How to Set Up a Paper Auction
1️⃣ Add Your Auction Items
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Navigate to Items > Manage Items in your admin.
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Click Add Item.
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Mark the Item Type as Silent.
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Enter a Starting Bid and Bid Increment for each item.
You can batch upload your items if you have many! Use the "Import Items" feature under Manage Items.
2️⃣ Create and Print Bid Sheets
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Go to Items > Printable Bid Sheets.
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Adjust your settings:
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Choose which items to include.
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Select formatting preferences (columns, line spacing, etc.).
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Click Display.
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Click Print to generate your bid sheets.
3️⃣ Change Items to "Live"
After your bid sheets are printed:
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Return to Items > Manage Items.
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Edit each item and change the Item Type from Silent to Live.
🔁 This makes it easier to enter winning bids in the next step.
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Click Update Item.
➕ Add Winning Bids After the Paper Auction
4️⃣ Manually Enter Winning Bids
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Navigate to Event Central > Butler.
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In the Add a Bid section:
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Type in the winning bidder’s name or bid number.
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Enter the item name/number.
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Enter the final bid amount.
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5️⃣ Confirm the Bid
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Click Add Bid to place the item into the winner’s cart.
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Click Place Bid to finalize.
The bidder now owns the item, and it will appear in their invoice automatically.
📋 Final Reminders
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Don’t forget to close out your auction once all paper bids are added.
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You can email receipts or invoices from the Bidders > Orders section.
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Consider using Bidder Notifications if you'd like to let guests know which items they’ve won.