To export an auction catalog to AuctionNinja, catalog the lots from photos, export an AuctionNinja CSV, load it into your sale, and add the photos, instead of typing every lot into the seller dashboard. Gavelist writes the titles and descriptions from your lot photos and exports a ready-made AuctionNinja CSV whose columns are copied exactly from AuctionNinja's own import template. This guide covers the workflow, what the file contains, and what you still fill in yourself.
Published September 2026 by Ben Cope, founder of Gavelist.
Steps to export from Gavelist and import to AuctionNinja
- Photograph the lots and upload the photos to Gavelist, then group the photos into lots in Gavelist's drag-and-drop lot editor.
- Run the description pass. Gavelist writes a title and description for every lot from all of its photos together, at 1,000+ lots in about 10 minutes.
- Review and edit. Your time goes into checking lots instead of typing them.
- Export the AuctionNinja file. In the export step, choose AuctionNinja. Gavelist produces a CSV with AuctionNinja's column headers, in AuctionNinja's order.
- Load the CSV into your AuctionNinja sale through AuctionNinja's import (confirm the steps with AuctionNinja seller support), then upload the photos to the matching lots in AuctionNinja. Photos travel separately from the spreadsheet.
Gavelist's file matches, header-for-header, an AuctionNinja import template that AuctionNinja supplied to a Gavelist client in 2026. AuctionNinja's public seller pages do not describe the import, so confirm with AuctionNinja seller support how imports run on your account before your first sale.
What is in the Gavelist AuctionNinja file
Gavelist builds the file header-for-header from AuctionNinja's template, because a renamed or reordered column can put data in the wrong field without an error. Gavelist copies all 15 headers exactly, including the spelling quirks, and fills the ones it has data for:
| AuctionNinja column | What Gavelist puts there |
|---|---|
| Lot Number | Your lot number |
| Lead | The lot title (AuctionNinja's headline) |
| Description | The full description |
| Condition notes | Condition written from the photos |
| Low Estimate ($) / High Estimate ($) | The lot's low and high estimate, when the lot has one |
| Category | The lot category |
| Dimensions - Length / Depth / Height | Left blank |
| Tags, Reference #, Shipping Available | Left blank |
| Consigner # | Your consignor, only if you turn on the Source (consignor) column in Gavelist |
| Item Notes | Left blank on purpose |
Gavelist leaves six columns empty because it does not hold that data (the three dimensions, Tags, Reference #, and Shipping Available) and keeps them in the file so the header still matches AuctionNinja's template. Two more are deliberate privacy choices. Consigner # stays blank unless you turn on the Source (consignor) column in Gavelist, because consignor identity is internal by default. Item Notes always stays blank: Gavelist's internal lot notes are for staff ("needs testing," for example), and AuctionNinja's Item Notes field is buyer-facing, so Gavelist never copies one into the other. Fill dimensions and shipping in AuctionNinja or in the CSV before you import.
What AuctionNinja charges, and what cataloging costs
AuctionNinja's seller fees and your cataloging cost are two separate lines. According to AuctionNinja's seller page (accessed September 2026), hosting online auctions costs $19.19 per month, a $250 one-time signup fee, and transaction fees of 2.35% or $75 per sale, whichever is greater. For estate sale listings, the Estate Sale Basic plan is free to join with listings at $29 each, and Estate Sale Member is $39 per month for unlimited listings.
Cataloging is the labor before any of that. According to Sound Auction Service in Washington state (services page, accessed September 2026), cataloging is billed at $3.00 per lot for "preparation of items, title and description creation, photographs as needed, and upload of lot to the bidding platform." Gavelist's pay-as-you-go price is $0.15 per lot for the description pass, so a 300-lot estate auction costs $45 for the Gavelist description pass, and Gavelist takes 0% of auction sales; photography, review, and upload are still your labor. Gavelist's monthly plans are $79 for 1,000 lots, $160 for 2,500, and $250 for 5,000.
Catalog once, list on AuctionNinja and elsewhere
A Gavelist catalog is not tied to AuctionNinja. Gavelist exports ready-made files for HiBid, LiveAuctioneers, Proxibid, BidWrangler, and AuctionNinja, an eBay Seller Hub bulk-listing file, and a universal CSV/XLS formatted for import by AuctionZip, AuctionMethod, Wavebid, AuctionFlex 360, and any other spreadsheet-import platform. That is the case for platform-independent cataloging, and the mechanics of running one inventory on several sites are in how to list one auction on multiple platforms.
According to Gavelist production data through September 22, 2026, 88 percent of lots exported by Gavelist clients shipped with the AI description unedited, excluding Gavelist's largest client (96 percent including it); unedited means the client saved no edit to the AI title or description. For how that was measured, see are AI auction descriptions accurate enough. At the high end of volume, one estate auction house cataloged 10,235 lots in six weeks on Gavelist, documented in the high-volume case study.
FAQ
Can I bulk upload lots to AuctionNinja from Gavelist? Gavelist exports an AuctionNinja CSV built header-for-header from AuctionNinja's own import template; AuctionNinja does not document that import publicly, so confirm the import steps for your account with AuctionNinja, then add the photos to the matching lots.
Does the AuctionNinja export include photos? No. The Gavelist AuctionNinja file carries lot numbers, titles, descriptions, condition notes, estimates, and categories; photos are uploaded to the lots in AuctionNinja separately.
How much does it cost to catalog an auction for AuctionNinja with Gavelist? Gavelist charges $0.15 per lot pay-as-you-go for the description pass, or $79 per month for 1,000 lots, and takes 0% of auction sales; a 300-lot sale costs $45 on Gavelist pay-as-you-go.
Sources
- AuctionNinja, "Sell on AuctionNinja" seller pricing, accessed September 2026. auctionninja.com
- Sound Auction Service, "Services," published $3.00/lot cataloging rate, accessed September 2026. soundauctionservice.com
- Gavelist production data, April to August 2026 (first-party).
More: every platform Gavelist exports to and Gavelist pricing.