How to Run an Online Coin Auction: A Dealer's Checklist

To run an online coin auction, choose where it runs, build a catalog of lots from your inventory, set a starting bid and an optional reserve on each lot, check that every lot is complete, then publish and promote the sale. When it closes, invoice the winners, ship the coins, and deal with the lots that did not sell. The work is in the catalog: a sale of 600 lots is 600 sets of photos, descriptions, and prices.

This checklist goes through each step in order.

Step 1: Choose where the auction runs

You have two choices, and many dealers use both.

A bidding platform such as HiBid, LiveAuctioneers, GreatCollections, or Proxibid. The platform brings its bidders, handles bidding, and often collects payment. You upload a catalog file in its format. In return it charges fees, and the buyer's premium is split by its terms. Each platform's fees and catalog rules change over time; read the current terms before you plan the sale.

Your own auctions, on your site or a marketplace where you host the sale. You keep more of each sale, and you own the bidder relationship. You also need bidders who already know you.

	Platform sale	Your own auction
Bidders	The platform's audience	Your own list
Fees	Platform fees and premium split	Lower
Catalog	Exported in the platform's format	Built in place
Payment	Often collected by the platform	Collected by you

Step 2: Pick the format and the dates

• Timed: each lot has a closing time. Bidding ends when the clock runs out. Good for large sales of low and mid-value coins.
• Live: an auctioneer calls each lot in real time, with online bidding. Good for fewer, higher-value lots.

Set a start and an end. Leave enough time for bidders to see the catalog, and avoid ending the day before a major show, when your bidders are traveling.

Step 3: Build the catalog from inventory

Each lot needs:

1. Photos of the obverse and reverse. For slabs, a clear photo of the label.
2. A title with date, mint mark, denomination, grade, and service: "1893-S Morgan dollar, PCGS VF-20".
3. A description of what the photos cannot show well: strike, toning, surfaces, pedigree.
4. The grade and cert number, so bidders can check the population and the cert.
5. A storage location, so you can find the coin to ship it.

Build lots from coins already in your inventory, not from a separate spreadsheet. When a lot sells, the coin should leave stock in the same step.

How big is a coin sale?

Coin sales on the big platforms often run from several hundred to a few thousand lots. At that size, check the catalog with a list of what is missing, not by scrolling.

Step 4: Number the lots

Give each lot a number before the catalog goes out, and do not change it after. Bidders, the platform, and your invoices all use it. See how to number auction lots for a numbering scheme that leaves room for late additions.

Step 5: Set starting bids and reserves

The starting bid is the first bid you accept. Low starting bids draw more bidders; too low, and a coin can sell for less than it is worth if few people bid. The reserve is the lowest price you will sell for. It protects a coin, but a lot that passes below reserve still costs you the listing work.

A practical rule: set the start from the coin's value, and use a reserve only on coins where a low sale would hurt. Many dealers use a cut bid, the lowest price they will take on a coin, as the reserve. How to set starting bids and estimates goes through the numbers.

Step 6: Check every lot before you publish

Before the sale goes live, go through a list:

• Every lot has photos.
• Every lot has a description.
• Every lot has a grade, or is marked raw.
• Every lot has a starting bid or an estimate.
• Every coin has a storage location.
• The sale has a cover image and a description.
• The start is in the future, and the end is after the start.

Count the gaps by type: "42 lots with no photos" is a task you can give someone. "Some lots are not ready" is not.

Step 7: Publish and promote

Publish when every check passes. Then tell your bidders: an email to your list, a post where your buyers read, a note on your site. Point to the coins most bidders will want to see.

Step 8: Watch the bids

While the sale runs, watch the lots that are ending soon and the ones with the most bids. Answer bidder questions fast; a question about a coin is a bid that has not happened yet. Do not change a lot's terms during bidding.

Step 9: Close out the sale

When bidding stops:

1. Close the sale so no more bids come in.
2. Invoice the winners, one invoice per buyer, with the hammer price, buyer's premium, tax, and shipping.
3. Take sold coins out of stock, so you do not sell them twice.
4. Credit the consignors for their sold coins.
5. Ship once payment clears.
6. Handle the unsold lots: relist, move to another channel, or return to the consignor. See what to do with unsold coin auction lots.

On a platform sale, the platform sends a results report. Importing it and checking the rows that do not match is covered in how to reconcile auction results.

Common mistakes

• A catalog in a spreadsheet. It drifts from inventory, and coins sell twice.
• Changing lot numbers after the catalog is out. Bidders and invoices stop matching.
• Reserves on every lot. Many lots pass, and bidders learn to stay away.
• No storage location. Shipping 400 lots becomes a search.
• No plan for unsold lots. They sit in a box until next year.

How CoinManagerPro runs auctions

In CoinManagerPro, auctions are timed or live sales you run on the Flow marketplace. You select coins from your inventory, up to 200 at a time, check each lot's starting bid and reserve, and add them as lots. Lots take their numbers from your lot number rules. Before you publish, the auction must have lots, a cover image, a description, and a start in the future; the main button on the page takes you to the first check that is not done. Active lots lists the open and closing lots of all your auctions, sorted by ending soon, highest bid, or most bids.

For sales on HiBid, LiveAuctioneers, and other platforms, you build a platform sale from the same inventory and export its lots in the platform's format. The Readiness page counts, for each upcoming platform sale, the lots without photos, a description, a grade, a price, or a storage location, and lists them by gap. The auction readiness and lot numbers help article has the steps.