Auctions are a great way to buy coffee. They allow buyers to discover exciting coffees and build new realitionships from around the workd without stepping onto a plane.
For those who have not taken part in an online coffee auction before, here’s how the process works:
The most important part of any auction is the bidding.
In a traditional auction, the lots are auctioned one lot at a time. Bids are placed, the bidding price increases until eventually the highest bid is placed, and no more bids are placed. The bidder with the highest bid wins the lot.
Specialty coffee auctions are different; they work as a ‘Helmsman’ style auction also known as ‘ multi-unit. It works like this
Each Auction is published on our Auctions page 3-6 weeks ahead of the event. During this time you can check the lots in the auction and prepare your bids.
We will open Pre-bidding one week before the auction starts. Placing a bid during the pre-bidding stage can give you an advantage over other bidders. Your pre-bid could be the winning bid if no other bidder submits a higher bid during the final auction. The pre-bids that you place will be used when the final auction starts.
Participants will have until the auction starts to place a pre-bid and then the auction will start as usual.If you wish you can also place an auto-bid with the maximum amount you are willing to pay for that coffee, the auto bid will bid on your behalf during the pre-bidding phase. This is a bid the platform places on your behalf, up to your maximum, to keep you winning the auction.
Open bidding starts and continues on all lots simultaneously until each and every lot has received an initial bid. As soon as every lot has received at least one bid on, or 1 hour after the final auction starts, the clock will start ticking down from 3 minutes for all lots in the auction.
Each time a new bid is placed on any of the lots, the clock resets to 3 minutes for all the lots. The auction continues until the clock hits zero when no further bids have been placed.
If you are the highest bidder for a Sensible Coffee auction lot and your bid is higher than the reserve price, you are the winner for that coffee.
Bids can be made in one of three ways:
Bid by the next suggested increment: You can bid at the next increment by pressing the “Bid” button and then pressing “Confirm” to confirm you wish to place a bid at the corresponding amount.
In this example the next minimum increment is $0.10 so the user is placing a bid for $3.20/lb.
Bid at a higher amount than the current increment: You can bid by enter your own bid amount. Remeber! your bid has to be greater than or equal to the current bid plus the minimum increment.
In this example the user is placing a bid for $4.00/lb which is is higher than the current bid plus the minimum increment ($3.10 + $0.10))
Use the Auto Bidding also know as Proxy bid: The autobid will set the maximum amount you wish to spend. Autobids are placed by the platform in your behalf up to the maximum bid amount that you set when you placed the autobid. The Autobid need to be higher than the current highest bid.
For example, if you set your auto-bid to a maximum of $10/lb, the platform will bid on your behalf against other bidders up to a maximum of $10/lb.
If the bidding in the auction exceeds your autobid (in this case $10.00/lb) your autobid will stop placing bids on your behalf. This will mean that you bid was exceeded and you will need to place another autobid for the platform to continue to bid on your behalf.
Pre-bidding is a phase where participants can place bids on the lots at any time prior to the start of the live auction.
Placing a bid during the pre-bidding stage can give you an advantage over other bidders. Your pre-bid could be the winning bid if no other bidder submits a higher bid during the live auction. Participants will have until the live auction starts to place a pre-bid and then the auction will start as usual.
You can also place autobids during this phase. Autobids will bid on your behalf throughout the auction up to the maximum bid set when you placed it.
Remember!The pre-bids that you place when the auction is open for pre-bidding will be used when the live auction starts.
