Copying items from a previous Auction

With the Auctions app, you can copy items from one of your existing auctions into the one you are building. Many organizations run the same auction every year with much of the same catalog — the same experiences, the same recurring donors — and copying brings those items across with their photos, which an import cannot do.

To copy items:

1. Open the Auctions Manager.
2. Click the title of the auction you want to copy items into.
3. Click the Items tab.
4. Click Copy From Auction.
5. For Copy items from, select the auction to copy from.
6. In Items available to copy, select the items you want.
7. Click Copy Items.

Note: The auction must be saved before you can copy into it. On a new auction, save it first.

Choosing items

The list shows each item's Number, Item, Category, Type, Price and Photos, so you can tell at a glance which are worth bringing across and which have images attached.

Select individually, or use the header checkbox to take everything. If the auction you picked has no items, the screen tells you so.

What comes across

Each copy is a new item in your auction, carrying the original's name, lot number, category, type, prices, descriptions and photo files. The category is matched by name in your auction, and created if it isn't there yet. Bids, purchases, fulfillment history and the item's status don't copy, so each copy starts fresh.

Three things worth knowing:

• Copies keep the source item's published state. Copy a published item and it arrives published — visible immediately if the auction is open. Review what you have copied before opening bidding.
• Only photo files that still exist are copied. If an image was removed from the server after the original item was created, the copy simply arrives without it rather than with a broken image.
• Copies keep their lot numbers. A copy keeps the original's lot number, even if an item in your auction already has that number. After copying, check your lot numbers and change any duplicates.

Nothing is copied back to the source auction, and the originals are untouched.

The results screen

After copying you get a summary — how many of the selected items were copied, and into which auction — with a row per item showing its Published state, its photo count, and Copied or Failed with the reason for any failure.

An item can fail for one of these reasons:

• It is incomplete in a way the new auction will not accept, most often a missing starting bid. Copy the rest, then create that item by hand.
• Your auction doesn't include its type. The row reads Failed — This auction does not include Fixed Price items. (or Silent Bidding, or Live Bidding). To copy it, include that type in your auction first, then copy the item again. See Choosing what's in an auction.

From here you can click Done, or copy more items from another auction.

Copying from Auctions > Items

You can also copy items from Auctions > Items, which lists the items in all your auctions. Select items from any number of auctions, click Copy to Auction, choose the auction under Copy into, and confirm. The copy works the same way as Copy From Auction, and the result is reported in a message at the top of the list. This is useful when the items you want are spread across several past auctions. See Browsing items across auctions.

Copying or importing?

Use	When
Copy From Auction	The items already exist in one of your auctions, and you want their photos
Copy to Auction in Auctions > Items	The items you want are spread across several auctions, or you find them by searching all your auctions
Import	The items are in a spreadsheet, or you are updating many items at once

See Importing auction items from a CSV file.

Related articles:

• Importing auction items from a CSV file
• Exporting auction items to a CSV file
• Browsing items across auctions
• Choosing what's in an auction
• Managing Auction Items