Why there is no bidding
Lotdesk sells no bids. It is the lot book: the part of the work that happens at the piece, before any bidder is involved.
Two jobs that do not belong together
A sale has two halves. In the first, someone stands at each piece and finds out what it is: the photographs, the description, the condition, the estimate, whose it is. In the second, a platform runs the sale: bidders, a live room or an online clock, an invoice for each winner, money moving.
The second half is real-time. When it fails, it fails on the day of the sale, in front of bidders, and the support that goes with it is a phone that rings. The first half is slow, careful and quiet, and is the one that is done at a barn door with no signal. Lotdesk is only the first half.
What that leaves out, and why it helps you
- No bidders. Nobody but your own people can see your book. There is no bidder login and no public listing of your sale.
- No clerking. Nothing to run on sale day, so nothing to break on sale day.
- No payments. No card is captured and no invoice is made, so there is no payment account of yours inside Lotdesk to secure or reconcile.
- No payouts to consignors. What you owe a consignor stays in your own accounts.
It also keeps the price honest. A product that takes a share of the hammer, or charges per bid, has to be in the sale. One that is not in the sale can charge $79 a month, flat, and has nothing to take a percentage of.
What it does instead
It does the first half well, and hands it on. The lots go out in the exact format of the platform you sell on, with the photographs named the way it matches them: Auction Flex, LiveAuctioneers, Wavebid or HiBid. If you change platform, the book comes with you, because it was never inside one.
It prints a catalog, and it reads a spreadsheet or another system's export, so a sale already started elsewhere can be finished here. See bringing a sale with you.
Open a book — free for your first 25 lotsLook at the sample sale first