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How to Set up a Private Treaty / Sealed Bid Auction

Bianca Utihata avatar
Written by Bianca Utihata
Updated over a week ago

Sealed Bid (also known as Blind Bid, Negotiated Sale, or Private Treaty) auctions are a type of sale where bidders cannot see what others have bid.

You can run a sealed bid auction in BidJS by using a combination of specific settings at both the item and auction levels.

This guide covers:

  • Creating the Auction and Items

  • Extra Options

  • Accepting and Rejecting Offers

Creating the Auction and Items

  1. Create a Timed Auction.

  2. Create items of type Listing.

3. Select the Purchase Option of Make_Offer.

Your item will appear to the public like this:

Extra Options

  • Purchase Price:

    • Automatically rejects offers made below the specified price.

  • Display Price:

    • Shows as an Opening Bid amount to users.

    • Has no effect on bidding unless a purchase price is also set.

⚠️ You cannot sell multiple quantities with this type of item/purchase option.
Entering a value in the Quantity field will return an error.
This field must be left blank.

Accepting and Rejecting Offers

  • By default, each user can place up to 3 offers per item (including those that are automatically rejected).

  • This limit can only be changed at the system level and would affect all clients on the server.

  • You can accept or reject offers at any time—whether the listing is live or has ended.

⚠️ Once an offer is accepted, you may see Number of Bids = 0 depending on your settings. This occurs if:

  • The "Show Number of Bids" setting is turned on at the auctioneer level

  • The item is still live or has ended, but the auction itself is still live

For more details, contact [email protected]

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