Help

Signing in

Sign in with the same email you use for the PTO app. There is no separate auction password: we email you a code, or you can use the Google button if that is how you usually sign in.

This site and app.williamspto.org are separate sign-ins, so being signed in over there does not sign you in here, and signing out here does not sign you out there. Same email, same account, one extra tap - they are two different sites that happen to share your account.

Do I have to be a Williams family?

No. Grandparents, neighbours, alumni families and local businesses are all welcome to bid. Anyone can make an account.

Browsing the catalog

Items lists every lot. Search by title, donor or lot number, filter by category, and sort by lot number, what is ending soonest, most bids or highest value. Every lot has its own address - lot 42 is /items/42 - so you can send one straight to a friend.

When does bidding open?

The countdown on the home page says. While an auction is in preview you can browse everything; bidding turns on at the time shown.

Max bids: the thing worth understanding

You can bid the amount on the button, or you can tell us the most you would pay and let us do the rest. That second one is a max bid, and it is not an amount you are spending.

Say the bidding is at $80 and you set a max of $200. Your bid goes on the board at the next step up - $85, say - and it stays there. When somebody bids $90, we bid $95 for you, automatically, within a second. We only ever go one step past whoever is behind you, and we stop the moment you are back in front. If nobody goes past $200, you win at whatever it actually took, which is usually a long way short of your maximum.

Nobody ever sees your maximum. Not other bidders, not the board, not the bid history - it shows the amount you are leading at, the same as any other bid. If you would rather everyone saw an exact number instead, tick “Show my bid at exactly this amount” and we will place that amount and nothing more.

Bids are binding, maximums included. Setting one means you are willing to pay it.

Why does the clock keep moving?

Because a bid in the last few minutes pushes that lot’s closing time out a little. We call it a soft close, and it is there so a lot cannot be won by whoever refreshes fastest in the final second.

Only the lot that got the bid is extended - the rest of the catalog closes on schedule. So the time printed in the programme is the earliest an auction can finish, not the latest. A popular lot can keep going for another half an hour, and that is working as intended. Watch the countdown on the lot itself; it is the real one.

What happens when it closes

The highest bid at the moment a lot stops extending wins it. You will get an email either way, and the winners are listed by lot on the results page.

If you won and you have a card on file, we charge it for everything you won at once - one charge, not one per lot - and email you a receipt. If a charge does not go through, or if you did not have a card on file, you will get a link to pay online with any card. Nothing else is needed from you.

Your own totals are on My bids while the auction is running and on the results page after it closes.

Picking up what you won

Pickup time and place are on the terms page and in your winning email. Bring the email, or just your name - we have the list. Gift certificates and anything that is really a piece of paper we can email instead; anything with a box comes home with you.

Please settle up before you collect. If your card did not go through, you can pay at the table, and cash and checks are fine there too.

Rules, payment and pickup

All on the terms page: how ties break, how the closing time can move, when winners are charged, and what counts as a charitable contribution.

Something looks wrong

Email auction@williamspto.org. Tell us the lot number and what you saw, and we will sort it out.