AuctionApp — Getting Started

1

Create a New Catalog

On the home page, click + Create New Catalog. Enter a name for your catalog — use something descriptive like Easton Press July or Books1 June 2026.

The catalog will appear on the home page immediately, even before images are uploaded.

💡 Avoid reusing a catalog name — it may carry over old catalog text from a previous run.

2

Upload an Existing Catalog

If you already have all your photos ready, use the Upload New Catalog form on the home page. Enter the catalog name, choose a prompt profile, and select your JPGs or ZIP file. The catalog is created and your images are saved and sorted into lots. Descriptions are not written automatically — open any lot and press Generate when you’re ready.

💡 Use this when you have all your photos ready at once. Use + Create New Catalog when you want to add images gradually, lot by lot.

3

Upload JPGs or a ZIP File

From the home page upload form, select your catalog, choose a Prompt Profile (see below), then upload your images. You can upload:

Individual JPG files
A ZIP file containing JPGs

Images are automatically sorted into lots by filename. Name your files 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 2_2.jpg (for a second image of lot 2), etc.

💡 You can also add images to individual lots later using the 📷 button on the auction grid, or the + Add Images button inside a lot.

4

Choose a Prompt Profile

The prompt profile tells the AI how to describe your lots. Choose the one that best matches your material:

Standard — general books and collectibles
Manuscript — handwritten documents, letters, ephemera with text
Ephemera — printed ephemera, trade cards, broadsides

💡 You can change the prompt profile for any catalog at any time from the catalog page dropdown.

5

Generate Catalog Descriptions

Open your catalog and use one of these buttons:

Generate All Lots — generates descriptions for every lot (overwrites existing)
Generate Missing Only — only generates lots that don't have a description yet

Generation runs in the background. Each lot takes roughly 20–30 seconds. You can navigate the app while it runs.

💡 Use Generate Missing Only after adding new lots so you don't overwrite work already done.

6

Generate or Edit Individual Lots

Click Open Lot on any lot card to open the lot page. From there you can:

Press Generate to create the description from the images, or Regenerate to redo it
Read and edit the catalog text directly
Use Generate with Prompt to regenerate using a specific profile
Add OCR hints in the notes field (e.g. "leather binding", "signed", "maps") before generating
Add or delete images for that lot
Save your edits with Save Catalog
Navigate to the next or previous lot with the arrow buttons

💡 On a keyboard, use ← and → arrow keys to move between lots.

7

Publish and Share

Your catalogs stay private until you publish them. Once a catalog is finished, there are three ways to put it in front of buyers:

Publish to WordPress — the Publish to WordPress button on your catalog page creates a public catalog page at easyauctionapp.com/lots/. Remove from Public Site takes it down at any time.
Your storefront — every published catalog also appears automatically on your dealer storefront at username.easyauctionapp.com, with lot pages, photos, prices, Buy Now (if you have set a PayPal email in your settings), and a Contact Seller link. Publishing is the switch — nothing extra to do.
Your own website — if you run a WordPress site, download the EasyAuction Catalogs plugin from the Publish & Share page, install it on your site, and enter your username under Settings → EasyAuction Catalogs. Your published catalogs then display on your own site using the shortcodes [easyauction_catalogs] and [easyauction_catalog], updating automatically as you publish, change prices, and mark lots sold. Visitors click through to your storefront to buy.

💡 Prices and SOLD badges come from the Prices & sales editor — keep it updated and every public view updates with it.

8

Search Engines Find Your Lots

When you publish a catalog, its lots become visible to Google and other search engines automatically. Each lot page presents its title, description, and photograph in a form search engines understand, so a collector searching for something specific can land directly on your lot. There is nothing to set up — publishing is what makes a catalog findable, and removing it takes it off the map search engines use.

Indexing is not instant — new lots typically appear in Google over days to a few weeks.
Lot links shared on social media or by email display the lot’s photograph and description automatically.
Removing a catalog takes it offline immediately, though search engines may show stale links for a while afterward.

💡 Detailed, specific descriptions are what search engines reward — the better the cataloguing, the easier your lots are to find.

⚙

Find Your Settings

Click Settings in the top menu bar — it’s on every page. This is your account hub, where you manage prompt profiles, eBay categories, and payment details in one place.

⚙

What I Sell — eBay Categories

Open Settings › What I sell and tick the categories you list on eBay (Books, Jewelry, Art, and so on). The eBay export then shows only the category options that match your inventory, so you’re not scrolling past categories you never use.

💡 Shown if eBay export is enabled for your account. You can change your selection any time.

⚙

Payments — PayPal

In Settings › Payments, enter the PayPal email that should receive payments. This is the address behind the Buy buttons on your public catalog. Leave it blank and no Buy buttons appear.

💡 Shown if your public storefront is enabled.

★

Helpful Tips

Your catalogs are private until you publish them — unpublished lots are never visible to anyone else
Use Archive on the home page to hide completed catalogs without deleting them
If an image lightbox is open, swipe left/right to browse images
The app works best in Safari or Chrome on iPad or any desktop browser

Catalog: A named collection of lots, created from your uploaded photos. The basic working unit of the app.
Lot: A single item (or combined group of items) within a catalog, with its photos, description, and price.
Upload: Adding JPGs or a ZIP file to a catalog; images are sorted into lots automatically.
OCR: Reading the text visible in your lot photographs (title pages, colophons, labels) to feed description generation.
Generate: AI drafting of a lot’s catalog description from its photos. Regenerate replaces the current draft.
Prompt profile: The instruction set controlling generation style — for example books vs. jewelry, or eBay vs. Ninja format.
Notes: Free text you add to a lot to steer its generation.
OCR Review: An optional proofreading pass that checks proper nouns (authors, printers, places) against live web search and proposes corrections you accept or reject.
Combine Lots: Merging several lots into a single entry.
Renumber: Reassigning lot numbers in sequence.
AI estimate: A suggested price generated alongside the description.
Publish (WordPress): Pushing a catalog to your WordPress site. Republishing updates the same pages in place.
eBay export: Formatted output for eBay listings, with shipping defaults per category.
Ninja transfer: Copy-paste-ready formatting for AuctionNinja.
Storefront: Your public dealer page at yourname.easyauctionapp.com showing published catalogs, with optional Buy buttons.
SOLD badge: The marker shown on a lot after a PayPal purchase.
Archive: Hiding a completed catalog from the home page without deleting it.