Auctions in Bidra are real WooCommerce products with the Auction product type, so your theme, payment gateways, shipping, taxes, and reports keep working as usual. This page covers setting one up, what happens during its life, and the admin screens you manage auctions from.
The Auction tab
Create or edit a product, set Product data to Auction, and open the Auction tab:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Item condition | Optional label shown to bidders — Not specified, New, or Used. |
| Start price | The lowest amount the first bid may be. |
| Bid increment | The minimum each new bid must add to the current bid. Defaults to 1 when left empty. |
| Reserve price | Optional hidden minimum. Bidders only see whether it has been met. An auction that ends below its reserve does not sell. |
| Buy It Now price | Optional. Lets a buyer purchase immediately at this price. Leave empty to disable Buy It Now. |
| Auction starts | When bidding opens. Leave empty to start immediately. |
| Auction ends | When bidding closes and the highest bidder wins. Required. |
Both dates use your site timezone. When you save, the plugin validates the auction and shows an admin notice if something is wrong — an end date that isn’t after the start date, negative prices, or a reserve below the start price.
With Pro active, the same tab gains a Pro options section: auction type (standard or sealed), proxy bidding, increment type, anti-sniping, automatic relist, and per-auction bidder limits.
How bidding works
Bidra runs standard ascending (English) auctions:
- The first bid must be at least the start price.
- Every next bid must be at least current bid + bid increment. The bid form always shows this minimum.
- Bidders must be logged in. The product’s author can’t bid on their own auction, and the current highest bidder can’t outbid themselves unless you allow it in Settings.
- An optional site-wide Maximum bid amount catches mistyped bids (e.g. an extra zero).
Each bid is stored in its own database table and mirrored onto the product, and the product’s price is kept in sync with the current bid — so WooCommerce sorting, price filters, and price display all reflect the live auction.
Reserve price
A reserve protects you from selling too cheaply. Bidders see "Reserve not met" or "Reserve met", never the amount. If the auction ends with the highest bid below the reserve, it closes as failed (reason: reserve not met), there’s no winner, and you get an "auction did not sell" email.
Buy It Now
Set a Buy It Now price to let a buyer skip the auction and purchase at that price. By default the option disappears as soon as the first bid is placed; to keep it available throughout, enable Buy It Now → Keep Buy It Now available after bidding has started in Settings.
How auctions start and close
A background task (bafw_check_auctions) runs every minute and:
- Starts scheduled auctions whose start time has arrived.
- Closes running auctions whose end time has passed, then resolves the outcome:
- Highest bid meets the reserve → sold; the highest bidder becomes the winner and receives the You won email with a pay link.
- No bids → failed (no bids).
- Highest bid below the reserve → failed (reserve not met).
As a safety net for hosts with unreliable WP-Cron, an auction is also checked whenever its page is viewed or its live bid data is requested — so visitors always see the correct state, even if the scheduled task is late.
Reopening an auction
To run a finished auction again, edit it, set a new Auction ends date in the future, and update. The auction reopens and accepts bids again. (Pro can relist failed auctions automatically.)
Winners and payment
- Once an auction closes, only the winner can add it to the cart and check out. Everyone else sees it as unavailable.
- The winner pays from the email link, from the auction page, or from My Account → Auctions → Won (a Pay now button).
- The auction is linked to its order at checkout and marked paid when the order reaches Processing or Completed. If the order is cancelled or refunded, the auction is released so the winner can pay again.
Pro adds a payment deadline, payment reminders, and second-chance offers to the next highest bidder.
Managing auctions in the admin
WooCommerce → Auctions → Bids
Every bid ever placed, in a searchable, sortable table — auction, bidder, amount, and date. Delete bids one at a time or in bulk; the auction is recalculated from the bids that remain (current bid, leader, and bid count all update). Use this to remove fraudulent or mistaken bids.
WooCommerce → Auctions → Winners
Closed auctions with their winner, winning bid, linked order, and payment status — your to-do list for chasing payment and shipping.
Products screen
The Products list gains auction columns (current bid, bids, ends) and a Filter by auction status dropdown so you can quickly list running, scheduled, finished, sold, or failed auctions.
Deleting auctions
Deleting an auction product also deletes its bid rows.