Creating an Auction
Sellers who are affiliated with an approved nonprofit organization (NPO) can create listings. Before your first listing goes live you must:
- Have a verified account with a confirmed email address.
- Be associated with an active NPO on AuctionPage.
- Have a payout method configured — either PayPal or a connected Stripe account.
If you don't have a payout method set up, the listing will remain in pending status until one is added.
Every listing requires the following fields:
| Field | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Title | 5–200 characters |
| Description | 20–5,000 characters |
| Starting bid | Minimum $1.00 |
| Images | 1–10 photos |
| Donation % | 50–100% of your seller share goes to the NPO |
| Duration | 5–10 days |
Optional fields include shipping cost, local-pickup-only flag, a pickup ZIP code, and up to 10 descriptive tags.
When you create a listing, you choose a duration between 5 and 10 days. The auction starts as soon as it is approved and runs for exactly that many days.
It depends on your NPO's settings:
- Auto-approve on: Your listing activates immediately as long as you have a payout method set up.
- Review required: Your listing enters a pending state and an NPO admin reviews it before it goes live.
You'll receive an email notification either way. You can cancel a pending listing at any time before it is approved.
This is the percentage of the post-fee remainder that you pledge to the nonprofits. It must be between 50% and 100% and is set by you when creating a listing — not by the NPO.
After AuctionPage deducts its 10% platform fee and 3% transaction fee, the remaining amount is split: the NPOs receive your chosen donation percent, and you keep the rest. For example, on a $100 sale with a 75% donation percent, you would receive $21.75 and the NPOs would share $65.25.
Yes. Enable the Local pickup only option and provide a pickup ZIP code. When local pickup is selected, shipping cost is automatically set to $0 and no shipping label needs to be generated.
Placing Bids
Any registered user with a verified email address can bid — except the seller who created the listing. The auction must be active and within its scheduled time window.
Your first bid must meet or exceed the starting bid amount. After that, each new bid must beat the current high bid by at least the minimum increment:
Example: current bid is $250 → minimum increment is $5 → you must bid at least $255.
Proxy bidding lets you set a maximum amount you're willing to pay. The system then bids on your behalf — only as much as necessary to keep you in the lead — up to your maximum.
Here's how the system responds when a new bid comes in:
- If the new bid is below your proxy max: You remain the high bidder. The displayed price rises to match the new bid (plus one increment), so you still win at the lowest possible amount.
- If the new bid beats your proxy max: You are outbid. You'll receive an email notification and can choose to bid again.
The earlier bidder wins. When a new proxy cannot exceed the existing proxy's maximum plus one increment, the existing proxy holder wins — their bid is committed at their full ceiling and the new bidder is immediately shown as outbid.
Yes. You can place at most one bid per 30 seconds on any single listing. This prevents rapid-fire bidding and keeps the auction fair for everyone.
If a bid is placed with 15 seconds or less remaining, the auction end time is automatically extended by 60 seconds. This gives other bidders a fair chance to respond and prevents last-second sniping.
The extension can happen multiple times — so a competitive auction in its final moments may run a bit longer than originally scheduled.
Yes. You'll receive an email notification whenever another bidder surpasses your bid. If you have an active proxy and the system raises your bid automatically on your behalf, you'll also receive a confirmation showing your new winning bid amount.
How Funds Are Distributed
Every sale follows a four-step distribution. Using a $100 sale with a 75% donation percent as an example:
| Step | Recipient | Rate | Example on $100 sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AuctionPage platform fee | 10% | $10.00 |
| 2 | AuctionPage transaction fee (Stripe cost coverage) | 3% | $3.00 |
| 3 | Seller — keeps (100 − donation%) of the remainder | 25% of $87 | $21.75 |
| 4 | Listing NPO — 50% of the donation pool | 37.5% of $87 | $32.63 |
| 4 | Bidder's NPO — 50% of the donation pool | 37.5% of $87 | $32.62 |
After the platform (10%) and transaction (3%) fees are deducted, the remaining 87% is split between the seller and the NPOs based on the donation percent the seller chose when listing the item. The NPO share is then divided equally between the NPO that hosted the auction and the NPO site where the winning bid was placed.
Payment is initiated automatically when the auction ends. The system charges the winning bidder's saved card on file.
If the charge fails, the system cascades down to the next-highest bidder and tries again — all the way down the bid history until a payment succeeds. If no payment can be collected, the auction is marked as ended with no sale.
Seller payouts are released once the item is confirmed delivered, through one of two paths:
- Buyer confirms receipt: The seller becomes eligible for payout the next business day (processed at 8 AM UTC daily).
- 7-day auto-release: If the buyer does not confirm receipt within 7 days of the item being marked as shipped, the seller is automatically paid out.
Payouts go to your connected Stripe account or registered PayPal address, depending on which method you configured.
NPO payouts are processed monthly. On the 1st of each month, AuctionPage aggregates all paid transactions from the previous calendar month and transfers each nonprofit's share to their connected Stripe account.
Each transaction contributes to two nonprofits: the NPO whose site hosted the auction, and the NPO site where the winning bid was placed. Each receives an equal 50% share of the donation pool from that sale. If both happen to be the same NPO, they receive the full pool.
NPO administrators receive an email with a detailed payout summary each cycle.
All buyer payments are collected into the AuctionPage platform account via Stripe. Funds are held there until they are disbursed according to the schedule above:
- Seller funds are held until delivery is confirmed or 7 days after shipment.
- NPO funds are held until the monthly payout cycle on the 1st.
Transactions show a pending status until each disbursement clears.
Fulfillment & Shipping
After the auction closes, the fulfillment process follows these stages:
- Awaiting payment — Your card is charged automatically.
- Awaiting shipment — The seller prepares and ships the item.
- Shipped — Seller marks the item as shipped. A 7-day auto-payout timer starts.
- Delivered — You confirm receipt. The timer is cancelled and the seller is queued for the next daily payout.
Either the buyer or the seller can open a dispute after payment is confirmed. Once a dispute is opened:
- Fulfillment is frozen — no payouts are released.
- An AuctionPage administrator is notified and will review the case.
- The dispute moves through states: open → under review → resolved (or escalated if needed).
- Upon resolution, fulfillment resumes and both parties are notified.
Account & Getting Started
Go to My Account and navigate to the Payout section. You can connect either:
- Stripe Connect — Direct bank transfer via Stripe. Fastest and recommended.
- PayPal — Enter your PayPal email address.
A payout method is required before any listing you create can go live.
Visit the Apply page and submit your nonprofit's information. Applications take less than 5 minutes and there's no credit card required. Once approved, you'll have access to the NPO dashboard to manage listings, sellers, and payouts.
Reach us at auctionpage.com/contact. Our team typically responds within one business day.