ONLINE AUCTION 101
Our online auction is quickly approaching (starts Monday at 10am to be exact!) and the auction committee has created a list of advice to help you navigate our online catalog and strategically bid for your desired items.
Whether you’re a veteran online bidder or you’re new, these tips are still helpful for all who are participating in our online auction.
TIPS and TRICKS
- Bookmark the Auction Website and Set Up Your Account: Go to ncapauction.com and create an account if you haven’t done so already. If you purchased a t-shirt, donated an item through the online form, or purchased event tickets, you already have an account.
- Vault Your Credit Card: This will save you time at then end of the online auction AND will make checkout a breeze at on Saturday at the Dinner and Auction!
- All bid items are available to place your bid until Thursday, April 26th at 10pm.
- Favorites: While perusing the catalog, you have the ability to add items as favorites by clicking on the heart icon on the item thumbnail. By clicking on My Favorites, you can view and track all of your favorites on one screen!
- Sorting Filters: The online catalog provides many different ways to sort through the items. We encourage you to look around this weekend when the online catalog opens, use the different filters to find your desired items.
- My Bids: You can view all items you’ve bid on by clicking on the My Bids link to see all your bid items in one place.
- Max Bidding: The bidder with the highest bid at the closing time of our auction is the winning bidder. However, the website manages bids similar to eBay. Each item has a minimum start bid with a designated raise amount. When you place your bid, you are telling the website your max bid amount that you are willing to go and the website will automatically place your bid at the next raise step until you’ve reached your limit. For example: the item is currently at $65 with a $10 raise, you can put in $110 as your max bid amount, the website will place your bid at $75 since you are currently the highest bidder. If someone else came in at $85, the website will automatically bump you into the $95 slot and so forth until your max bid has been outbid. You will be notified via email or text (if you checked that option in your account settings) that you’ve been outbid at your max bid amount of $110.
- Many people wait until the last hour or two to place their final bids so be sure to stay near your computer Friday night.
- Sellable vs. Biddable: The trick to our online auction is that we have some items that are Sellable but most items are for bid. The Sellable items are available on a first come first serve basis until all slots are sold. Some items have minimal slots, such as 8, and others (like paintball) have up to 75 slots. You’ll want to sign up for those items when the online auction opens on Monday morning at 10am to ensure you get your spot. You can see how many slots are remaining in each sign up item.
- If you purchase a sellable item, the website will prompt you to pay for your item immediately. If you intend to bid on items throughout the week, we suggest you wait to pay for all of your sellable and bid items at once after the online auction closes.
- Don’t forget to buy your Principal of the Day Raffle Tickets which will be drawn on Friday, April 27 during the school day.
- Time with Teacher: We ask that you only bid on your child’s’ classroom teacher. Most of the Time with Teacher offerings are biddable but may have multiple bid slots. It is possible for one person to win multiple bid slots for one teacher when attempting to win one. When a bidder wins multiple bid slots but only desires one, they must pay for all slots won through our checkout. It is the winner’s responsibility to handle the additional slot(s); the school is not responsible to resell unwanted slots.
If you have any questions about the bidding process or the online auction, email Courtney Wade at cwade@ncapschool.org. Happy bidding and thanks for supporting our Phase III project!