Configuration Archives

In v5.0+, all Subscribers can conduct their own auctions on your blog or website. This function is automatically built-in. If you do not want anyone else but you to create auctions you can simply disable the main feature to disable registrations via the Settings > General admin panel.

Allow/Disallow Subscribers to Host Auctions

As an admin you may or may not want to allow your Subscribers to host auctions on your site. Here’s a step by step process to amend this:

Install this plugin: User Role Editor
Go to the Users > User Role Editor admin panel and select the Subscriber role to edit.
Scroll down to see the “Custom capabilities” and you will notice a checkbox that states ‘create_auction‘.
You can select or deselect this checkbox depending on whether or not you want to allow your users to host auctions on your site.

Auction Creation

Subscribers can set up and manage their own auctions via their default WordPress admin panel. They can view all their Current Auctions from their backend panel.

Auction Management

They can also edit them, close them out early or delete their own auctions. The site administrator cannot edit or delete any Subscriber auction.

Subscribers Cannot…

– Subscribers cannot edit any auction settings, except for what is mentioned in the “Subscriber Account Settings” documentation below.

– Subscribers cannot edit any other auctions except their own.

– Subscribers cannot create Posts or Pages to show their auctions.

– Subscribers cannot create new categories for their auctions

Subscribers Can…

– Subscribers can accept direct PayPal payments only for their winning auctions.

– Subscribers can create as many auctions as they wish.

– Subscribers can add a shipping price to their auctions.

– Subscribers can hold Buy it Now auctions.

– Subscribers can set a Custom Bid Increment for their auctions.

How can you show your Subscriber Auctions?

You can enter the shortcode [ wpadisplay ] in a Page. This shortcode will show all your registered Subscribers and their profile will link to all the auctions they have live on your blog or website.

How can I protect myself against spammers?

You can use any number of membership plugins available to allow only paid/approved Subscribers to register. You can also delete a spam Subscriber anytime via your “Users” admin panel.

Must I have a PayPal Payment Page set up for my Subscribers?

Yes, it would be highly recommended as the only way a Subscriber can get paid is via PayPal. So setting up this page is vital. To learn how to do so read our PayPal Payment Page documentation.

This feature is in a beta phase and will greatly improve over time. Your feedback to make it better will be invaluable to us.

Please read the documentation on “Subscriber Auctions” to learn how to show your subscriber auctions.

Subscribers can set up their auction settings via their default WordPress profile page in v5.0+. These include:

1. PayPal account: Subscribers can enter the PayPal email they wish to get paid at for the auctions they conduct on your site. All payments for subscriber held auctions are handled between the subscriber and the auction winner.

2. Email notifications: They can configure what type of email notifications they get for their auctions.

3. Bidder Blacklist: Subscribers can ban certain email addresses from bidding. As all bidders are linked by their email address (from the Current Auctions panel) a subscriber can ban any fraudsters or spammers from bidding on their auctions. This does not affect auctions held by other subscribers.

4. Auctions: A list of all current and closed auctions are shown to each subscriber.

Once you’ve installed the plugin you will see your main WP Auctions dashboard. This area shows you your account at a glance and important links and information.

Auction Settings

This area has three main parts:

1. General Settings

Here you can enter your auctions widget title, the auction engine you would like to use, notification preferences and other important settings like user registration etc…

2. Payment Settings

Here you can enter the information for your preferred way of getting paid. You can also choose to say whether you will be charging a fee per auction or not.

3. Other Settings

Fine tune the plugin to your requirements with your options here. Set whether you want to allow extra bidding time, show seller details, set a landing page among many other features.

Issue Resolution Options

These settings help users with specific server setups to optimize the plugin for their use.

Note: This feature can only be used with the PayPal payment option. It will not display information related to any other payment option. Other payment option details are sent via email to the winning bidder.

After an auction is over the winner gets an email notification with the payment instructions. In v5.0+, you can set up a dedicated “Payment Page” by inserting the shortcode [ wpapayment ] (remove the spaces between the brackets) in it.

The winning email will then contain a link back to this Page which will give a link to the secure PayPal website to pay the winning bid price.

Our new modern auction display has some areas which can be optionally turned on or off.

1. Terms and Conditions

This is a global setting and can be turned on by placing some text in the relevant section under the main Auction Settings.

2. Seller Details

v5.0 allows subscribers on your site to post their own auctions. If you wish to show their details next to their auctions you can use this setting to turn the display on/off.

3. Shipping Tab

In the new modern display you can activate the shipping tab by entering any relevant shipping information for your item.

Add an Auction

Entering a new auction is very straight forward. Start with the essentials like the title, description (using the WYSIWYG editor), upload a featured image, the starting price, end date and the payment method.

Once you’ve done the above you can then add further details like auction category, embedded auction URL, shipping data, reserve price and more images among other features.

After you have completed entering your auction details simply click the “Add Auction” button at the bottom of the page to make your auction go live!

Edit an Auction

From your “Current Auctions” tab you can click “Edit” to change any part of your auction. The start date cannot be changed on an auction once it receives a bid.

Manage your Auctions

You can view all your Current and Closed Auctions from those respective admin areas. Details like creation date, start date and ending date are displayed along with all bids placed. You can also see the current bid, your BIN price and any reserve you may have set. To edit any of this information click the “Edit” link.

All bidders have their name linked to their email address, for when you would like to get in touch with them for any purpose related to your auction.

Delete your Auctions

You can delete any auction, live or finished, from either the Current or Closed Auctions admin area at any point of time.

You can request payment from auction winners via the following options.

1. PayPal

Enter your PayPal email address where you would like to receive your money and the plugin will automatically send an email out to the winner with a link back to your PayPal Landing Page. You must create a new Page for this and enter the shortcode [ wpapayment ] (remove the spaces between brackets) to show the relevant information to pay.

2. Bank Details

The textarea where you enter your Bank Details will be saved and sent out in the email to the auction winner. Typically, you should enter the information that is relevant for you to get paid. For example, your bank name and address and the account number where you would like money to be wire transferred. The manual transfer will then have to be handled offline between both parties.

3. Mailing Address

The textarea where you enter your Mailing Address will be saved and sent out in the email to the auction winner.

4. Custom Payment

If you would like to enter specific terms/forms of payment then you can do so here and it will be sent out in the email. For example, cash payment on pick up or drop off.