📦How to Package Items in ClickBid

⚙️ Before You Start

A few important things to know before packaging items:

• Packaging is only available for Silent items with no bids.
• You must select at least two items to create a package. There is no upper limit.
• Once an item is linked to a package, the original item cannot be edited until it is unlinked.
• TravelPledge items cannot be packaged.
• Packaged items will be tagged automatically with the system tag "packaged".
  
  

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⚙️ Accessing Manage Items

1. Log in to your ClickBid event admin dashboard.
2. In the left-hand navigation, click Items to expand the menu.
3. Click Manage Items.
   

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➕ Step 1: Select Items to Package

1. In the All Items table, locate the items you want to combine into a package.
2. Check the checkbox next to each item you want to include. You must select at least two items.
3. Once two or more items are selected, the Package Items button at the bottom of the table will become active.

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➕ Step 2: Build the Package

After clicking Package Items, the Build Package page will load with two panels: Linked Items on the left and Package Details on the right.

Reviewing Linked Items (left panel)

The items you selected will appear as cards in the Linked Items section. Each card shows the item name, number, FMV, and donor information. You can:

• Click the expand arrow on each card to view additional details like FMV, starting bid, and bid increment. No editing is allowed at this level.
• Use the Add Item search box below the linked items to search for and add additional silent items to the package.
• Click the unlink icon on any card to remove an item from the package before finishing.
  

Completing Package Details (right panel)

Fill in or review the following fields for the new package item:

1. Item #: A new item number will be suggested automatically. You can change it if needed.
2. Package Title: AuctionGPT will generate a suggested title by combining the individual item names.
3. Status: Defaults to Invisible. Change this to Active when you're ready for bidders to see it.
4. Availability: Choose All Bidders or Checked In Bidders.
5. Closing Time: Set the date and time bidding will close for this package.
6. Fair Market Value: Automatically summed from all linked items. Review and adjust if needed.
7. Starting Bid: Auto-calculated based on your Pricing Defaults. Edit as needed.
8. Bid Increment: Auto-calculated. Edit as needed.
9. Buy Now: Enter a buy now price if applicable.
10. Category: Assign the package to a category.
11. Consignment Amount: Enter if applicable.
12. # of Increments to Show: Defaults to 20. Adjust as needed.
13. Show Names in History?: Choose Yes or No.
14. Is this Item Taxable?: Choose Yes or No.
    

Description and Extras

1. Expand the Description & Extras section.
2. A description will be auto-generated by AuctionGPT, combining the individual item descriptions into one concise write-up. You can also toggle to use the Combined Original Descriptions instead.
   AuctionGPT:
   
   Combined: Will separate the descriptions by a horizontal line. 
   
   
   
3. Review and edit the description as needed using the full text editor.
4. Exceptions from linked items will be listed by item name for easy review. Edit as needed.
   

Package Images

1. Expand the Package Images section.
2. Select images from the linked items to include in the package. Up to 10 images can be selected total.
3. You can also upload new images directly. The combined total of selected and uploaded images cannot exceed 10.

Custom Tags

1. Expand the Custom Tags section if you want to assign any custom tags to the package.

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✅ Step 3: Finish the Package

1. Review all details on both panels.
2. When everything looks correct, click the Finish button in the bottom right corner.
3. Confirm when prompted.

Once confirmed, the following will happen automatically:

• The linked items will be moved to the 9000 item number range and assigned a Linked status, invisible to bidders and locked from editing.
• A new packaged item is created with the details you configured.
• The new item is tagged "packaged" automatically.
• Donors from all linked items are added to the new packaged item.

To cancel without creating the package, click the Cancel button. All selected items will remain exactly as they were.

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🔁 How to Unpackage or Modify a Package

You can unlink items from a package at any time, as long as the packaged item has no bids.

1. On the Manage Items page, click the + icon next to the packaged item to expand it.
2. Click the broken link icon next to any linked item you want to remove.
3. The Build Package form will reopen showing the remaining items. You can choose to rebuild the package details or keep them as-is.
4. If removing an item leaves only one linked item in the package, a popup will warn you that the package will be deleted and the remaining linked items will be reinstated as Invisible.

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🔁 Viewing Packaged Items in Manage Items

After packaging, the Manage Items table will display the new packaged item with a + icon next to it.

• Click the + to expand and see all linked items nested beneath it.
• If you prefer to view all items without nesting, look for the option to turn off grouping at the top of the items table.

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📊 How Packaged and Linked Items Appear in a Downloaded CSV

The items table on the Manage Items page includes a CSV download option that exports all of your items. When your event includes packaged items, both the package itself and its linked items will be included in the export. Here is what to expect.

Downloading the CSV

1. On the Manage Items page, locate the All Items table.
2. Use the table's export or download option to save the CSV to your computer.
3. Open the file in Excel, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet application.

How packaged items appear

Each packaged item exports as its own row with the item details you configured in the Build Package form. You will recognize a packaged item in the CSV by its Tags column, which will include the system tag packaged. The Status column for packaged items will show Invisible, since packages are not visible on the bidding site until you change the status to Active.

How linked items appear

Each linked item also exports as its own row. You will recognize linked items by two things: their item number will be in the 9000 range, and the Status column will show Linked to Package (#XXX), where XXX is the item number of the package they belong to. This makes it easy to see exactly which package each linked item is associated with.

What the CSV data tells you

A few things worth knowing when working with the exported data:

• The Tags column on linked items will show their original custom tags as well as system tags like donated item, has pic, or no pic.
• The FMV, Start, and Raise columns on linked items reflect the original values from when the items were created, not the package totals.
• The packaged item's FMV reflects the combined total set during the packaging process.
• Linked items retain their original item names in the Name column, making it easy to identify them even after packaging.

🖨️ Display Cards and Packaged Items

Display Cards are printable cards you can place next to items at your event. When your event includes packaged items, here is how packaging affects what prints.

Accessing Display Cards

1. In the left-hand navigation, click Items to expand the menu.
2. Click Display Cards.

What prints for packaged items

When you generate display cards, the packaged item will print as its own card using the package title, item number, description, FMV, starting bid, and any images you selected during the Build Package process. This is the card you would place at your event next to the bundled lot.

Linked items, the original items that were combined into the package, will not print when generating display cards, even when All is selected in the Items to Display/Print field. Because linked items have a status of Invisible and item numbers in the 9000 range, they are excluded from the print output automatically. You only need to worry about printing cards for your active packaged items.

Printing only the items you want

1. On the Display Cards page, locate the Items to Display/Print field.
2. Leave it set to All to print cards for all active items, or enter specific item numbers separated by commas to print a targeted set.
3. Click Make Displays to generate the print-ready cards.

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📝 Summary

Item Packaging in ClickBid lets you combine silent, no-bid items into a single auction package, complete with an auto-generated title, combined description, summed FMV, and merged donor records. Linked items stay in the system but become invisible and locked until unlinked. The process is fully reversible as long as the package has no bids.