Running a Silent Auction

Overview

The silent auction tool lets you create a live bidding page for your event — no paper bid sheets, no clipboards. Attendees (and anyone with the link) can browse items and place bids from their phone. When you close the auction, winning bidders automatically receive a Stripe payment link by email.

Silent auctions are available on all paid plans. The platform fee on auction proceeds matches your plan’s ticket rate (1% on Starter, 0.75% on Growth, 0.5% on Pro and Enterprise).

Setting Up the Auction

Open your event dashboard and go to Program → Auction.
Add items using the Add Item form. Each item has:
- Name and description — displayed on the public bidding page
- Photo (optional) — upload an image directly from your computer, or paste an external URL; displayed on the public bidding page
- Starting bid — the minimum first bid accepted
- Minimum increment — how much each subsequent bid must exceed the current one (default: $10)
- Reserve price (optional) — if the final bid doesn’t reach this amount, no payment link is sent
- Item number and category (optional) — bidders can search by number, filter by category, and sort by number. Match the numbers to your printed program or table tents.
- Fair market value (optional) — shown to bidders as the item’s value. After paying, winners see how much of their payment may be tax-deductible: the amount above this value. The winner email includes the same figures.
- Donated by (optional) — credits the person or business that gave the item.
- Buy It Now price (optional) — a guest can pay this price to win the item at once. Bidding on that item ends, the buyer goes straight to Stripe Checkout, and the guest who was leading gets an email that the item sold. The option goes away once the bidding reaches the price. It must be higher than the starting bid and at least the reserve.
- Quantity (default 1) — for identical items, such as 10 gift baskets. The top bidders each win one at their own bid. See Items with more than one unit. You can’t change the quantity once bidding on the item has started.
Optionally set when bidding opens. Before that time, guests can browse items and verify their email, but can’t bid. The page counts down to the opening.
Optionally set an auto-close time, in your event’s time zone. At that time bidding stops, the auction closes within five minutes, and each winner gets a payment link by email. Leave it blank to close the auction yourself.
Optionally give categories their own close times under Close times by category, for example Dining at 8:00 and Travel at 8:30. Each category closes and sends winners their payment links (or charges saved cards) at its own time. Items in a category without a time, and items without a category, close at the auction’s auto-close time. New items added to a category get its close time.
Optionally turn on Soft close (2, 3, 5 or 10 minutes). With an auto-close time set, a bid in an item’s last minutes extends that item’s bidding by the same number of minutes. Other bidders get a chance to answer a last-second bid. Items without late bids still close on time.
Toggle Auction open for bidding to make the public page live, then share the link with attendees.

How Bidding Works

The public bidding page at /{orgSlug}/{eventSlug}/auction shows all open items with their current bid and bid count, in your event’s currency. The first time a guest taps Bid from…, they enter their name and email and type in a 6-digit code we email them. That verifies the address once per auction. After that they enter only the bid amount.

Email verification means nobody can bid in someone else’s name, and winner payment links go to an address the bidder controls.
Each verified bidder gets a paddle number (101, 102, …) for this auction. It shows at the top of their bidding page and next to their name in your dashboard, so staff can match a bidder without reading out email addresses.
Guests can search items, filter by category, and sort by item number, price, or bid count. My bids shows only the items they’ve bid on.
Verified bidders can tap the star on an item to watch it. Watching shows only starred items. About 30 minutes before a watched item closes, the bidder gets one email reminder with the next bid amount, unless they already hold the high bid. Your dashboard shows how many bidders are watching each open item.
Bids must be at least the current bid plus the minimum increment.
Each item shows the bidder whether they are the highest bidder or have been outbid.
When a bidder is outbid, they receive an automatic email notification so they can return and bid again.
The page updates in real time via live subscription — no manual refresh needed.
If an auto-close time is set, a live countdown is shown at the top of the page.
With soft close on, an extended item shows Extended and its own countdown. Your dashboard shows the new close time on the item.

Card on File

Set Card on file in the auction settings to have winners pay without chasing payment links after the event.

Optional: bidders see a Save a card button after they verify their email. Required before bidding: they must save a card before their first bid.
The card form is Stripe’s. Stripe stores the card; CompleteEvent keeps only the brand and last four digits, which the bidder sees on the bidding page. Bidders can remove their card there.
When the auction closes, each winner with a saved card is charged once for everything they won and gets an emailed receipt listing the items. Your dashboard shows those items as Paid by saved card.
A guest with a saved card who uses Buy It Now is charged on the spot, without leaving the page.
If a card is declined or the bank asks the bidder to confirm, that winner gets the usual Stripe payment link by email instead. Winners without a saved card get payment links as before.
Card charges carry the same platform fee and payout to your Stripe account as payment links.

Outbid Texts (Growth and Pro)

On Growth, Pro and Enterprise plans, verified bidders see Text me when I’m outbid on the bidding page. They enter a mobile number and tick a box agreeing to texts. When someone outbids them, or buys the item with Buy It Now, they get a short text with the new high bid and a link back to the auction, as well as the usual email.

A bidder gets at most one text per item every 10 minutes, so a bidding war doesn’t flood their phone.
Replying STOP to any CompleteEvent text stops these texts. Bidders can also turn them off on the bidding page.

Automatic Bidding (Growth and Pro)

On Growth, Pro and Enterprise plans, bidders can tick Bid for me up to this amount and enter a maximum instead of a single bid. The system places the lowest bid that puts them in the lead. When someone bids against them, it raises their bid one increment at a time, up to their maximum.

Nobody sees a bidder’s maximum, including you. The bidder sees their own.
If two maximums are equal, the bidder who set theirs first keeps the lead.
A bidder who already leads can raise their maximum. The current bid doesn’t change.
Bids the system placed show as automatic in the bid history on your dashboard.
The winner pays the final bid, not their maximum.
Automatic bidding is for single items. Items with more than one unit take regular bids only.

Items with More Than One Unit

Set Quantity above 1 when you have several identical items, such as 10 gift baskets or 4 rounds of golf. The top bidders each win one unit and pay their own bid.

The bidding page shows 10 available and the lowest winning bid. Until every unit has a bidder, any bid at or above the starting bid wins one. After that, a new bid must beat the lowest winning bid by the increment.
Each bidder holds at most one unit. A bidder who drops out of the top group gets the usual outbid email (and text, if they turned texts on).
If two bids are equal, the bidder who bid first keeps the unit.
Buy It Now sells one unit at a time. Bidding on the rest stays open, and the quantity drops by one. It’s offered until the lowest winning bid reaches the Buy It Now price.
At close, each winning bid at or above the reserve gets its own payment link or card charge. The dashboard lists each extra winner as a separate row marked Extra unit, so payment, the checkout desk and pickup work the same as for any other item.

Collecting Donated Items

Donors can offer items through a public form instead of emailing you the details. Turn on Accept donated items in the auction settings and share the form link shown under it (your auction page address followed by /donate).

Donors enter their name, email, business name and phone (optional), the item name, description, estimated value, a photo and any restrictions, such as an expiration date. They get a thank-you email.
Offers appear under Donated items to review on the auction page. They are never shown to bidders until you accept them.
Accept creates an open auction item with the donor credited, the photo, and the restrictions added to the description. The suggested starting bid is 40% of the stated value; change it before you accept. You can also set the increment, item number and category.
Decline removes the offer from the list. The donor isn’t notified.
Turn the setting off to close the form once your catalog is full.

Thanking Item Donors

Once bidding on a donated item ends, its donor appears under Thank item donors on the auction page. Click Preview the email to read it, then Send to email every donor on the list.

The email names the item and, if it sold, what it raised (the total of all winning bids for an item with more than one unit). Items that didn’t sell get a thank-you that says you’ll be in touch about the item.
It includes the item’s fair market value, if one was set, for the donor’s records.
Each donor gets the email in the language they used on the donation form.
Only donors who used the donated-item form are listed, because they gave an email address. Donors you typed in by hand aren’t emailed.
Each donor is emailed once. If a send fails, the donor stays on the list so you can try again.

Importing, Duplicating and Exporting

Import items (below the add-item form): upload a CSV with one item per row. Name and starting bid are required; item number, description, category, donor, fair market value, increment (default 5), reserve, Buy It Now and quantity (default 1) are optional. Download the template to see the columns. You see how many rows are ready and which rows have problems before anything is created. Up to 500 items at a time.
Duplicate on any item creates an open copy with the same details and no bids, for example a second wine tasting. Give the copy its own item number.
Copy from another event reuses items from one of your organization’s other auctions, such as last year’s gala. Pick the event, untick anything you don’t want, and copy. Copies start as open items with no bids, with the same photos, prices, item numbers and donors.
Export downloads two spreadsheets: items and winners (status, high bid, winner, paddle number, how and when they paid, pickup), and all bids.
The post-event board report includes a Silent auction section: items offered and sold, winning bidders, winning bids, collected, still owed, and the top three items.

Bid Sheets and the Projector Display

Print bid sheets (top of the auction page) prints one page per open item: name, number, description, donor, value, starting bid, increment, Buy It Now price, and a QR code. Scanning the code opens the bidding page with that item’s bid window, so guests can bid from the table.
Projector display (Growth, Pro and Enterprise) opens a full-screen page for a projector or TV: the total bid so far, the countdown, a QR code to the bidding page, the most active items with their current bids, and the latest bids. It updates on its own as bids come in and pages through items when there are more than six. Bidders appear by paddle number, never by name.

Closing the Auction

When you’re ready to end bidding, go to Program → Auction and click Close auction & notify winners. This:

Immediately stops accepting new bids on all open items.
For each item with a winning bid at or above the reserve price, creates a Stripe Checkout session and emails the winner a payment link.
Items with no bids, or where the reserve wasn’t met, are marked closed with no payment request.

After closing, the bidding page shows the winning bid for each item (without names). Winners have 24 hours to pay through their Stripe Checkout link. Once paid, the item status changes to Paid in your dashboard.

Checkout Desk

Open Checkout desk on the auction page when winners come to collect their items. Search by paddle number, name, email, or item. Each winner shows what they won, the total, and anything still owed.

Take payment: record a payment made in person (cash, check, card terminal, or other) with an optional note such as a check number. Recording it cancels the winner’s Stripe payment link so they can’t pay twice. If they already paid online, the desk tells you instead.
Mark picked up once the winner has the item, or Mark all picked up for everything they won. Items must be paid first.
The top of the desk shows the number of winners, the amount still owed, and how many items have been picked up.
Print winner sheets prints one page per winner, in paddle-number order: paddle number, name, each item won with its amount, whether it’s paid or owed, a pickup box per item, and lines for the winner’s signature and staff initials. Print sheet on a winner prints just theirs.

When a Winner Doesn’t Pay

Items waiting on payment show Awaiting payment in the dashboard. Open the item to:

Resend payment link: cancels the old link and emails the winner a new one. Use this when a link expired or the winner can’t find the email.
Offer to next bidder: cancels the winner’s link and emails a payment link to the highest bid from a different bidder that meets the reserve price.

Stripe Requirements

Your organization must have a connected and fully onboarded Stripe account to collect auction payments. Connect Stripe in Organization Settings → Payments. Without Stripe, you can still manage items and view bids, but payment links cannot be sent.

Tips for a Successful Auction

Display the link prominently — put it in your event program, on a signage screen, and in any pre-event emails.
Set a realistic starting bid — typically 30–50% of the item’s fair market value.
Use small increments for lower-value items ($5–$10) and larger increments for higher-value items ($25–$50) to drive competitive bidding.
Announce the close time — a few minutes before auto-close, make an announcement so bidders have a last chance to bid.