HiBid lot import through Auction Flex 360: columns, rules and a template

HiBid has no file import of its own. Lots reach it through Auction Flex 360: you import them there from a CSV, add the photos, then click Upload Auction on the Auction Day tab. That button appears once your Auction Flex 360 account is connected to HiBid, under Miscellaneous > Company Details > Manage Auction Listing Service.

Auction Flex 360 imports lots only from a CSV file. Cataloger writes one in UTF-8 with Windows line endings, one line per lot. Auction Flex 360's help pages don't say which encoding it expects.

The headers don't have to match a fixed list. When you import, you assign each column in the file to an Auction Flex 360 field, and you can save that as a layout to reuse for the next sale. Cataloger names each column after the Auction Flex 360 field it is meant for. Three of those names are not confirmed, as the next section says.

These are the columns Cataloger writes, straight from its exporter. The Quantity and estimate names come from a third-party guide, not Auction Flex 360's own help, so check them against your field list the first time you map the file. Auction Flex 360's CSV Template, under Lots > Import Lots, shows the fields it offers.

Estimates are whole numbers with no currency sign, and Quantity is always 1. Condition notes, when a lot has them, go on the end of the description after "| Condition:".

Cataloger doesn't write a Seller Code. Auction Flex 360 uses that column to attach each lot to its seller, with the codes from Customers > Customer List, so add it yourself if you need it.

Cataloger checks every row before you download and blocks the download until these are fixed:

• LotNumber is blank, or the same number is used by more than one lot.
• Title or Description is blank.
• The low estimate is above the high estimate.

These are warnings only:

• A title over 50 characters. Longer titles are reported to be cut short, but Auction Flex 360's help pages don't confirm a limit, so Cataloger leaves the title as you wrote it.
• A lot with no estimate, or one that can't be read as a low and high number. Its estimate columns are left blank.
• Estimates in more than one currency. The file carries no currency, so every amount is read in your house's currency.
• No starting bid rule is set, so StartBidEach is blank.
• Line breaks in a description. They are written as spaces, so each lot stays on one line.

Auction Flex 360 checks the file again when you import it. It lists any errors for you to fix in place before the import finishes, then reports how many rows came in.

Cataloger fills StartBidEach from your house rule, such as half the low estimate rounded down to the nearest $50. It never picks a starting bid itself. This file has no reserve column.

The file has no photos. Auction Flex 360 takes them separately, after the lots are imported, and matches each photo to its lot by file name: the lot number, then the photo number, as in 12-1.jpg and 12-2.jpg. It also reads 12.1 and 12_1.

Download the photos from the export as a ZIP with each file already named that way. Unzip it, open the images folder and select every photo at once in Lot Image Import. Add the photos before you upload the auction to HiBid.

The first rows of the file Cataloger writes for two demo lots, under a house rule of half the low estimate rounded down to $50. The blank template has the same header row and no lots.

The same notes Cataloger shows next to the download: