For most auctioneers, cataloging is the slowest part of running a sale. Writing a title, a description, and a category for every lot takes hours, and that work usually gets repeated for each marketplace the auction is listed on. An auction that runs on LiveAuctioneers and one other site often means cataloging the same lots twice.
The re-keying problem only grows with the market. According to Technavio (2025), the global online auction market is projected to grow by USD 3.98 billion from 2025 to 2029, at a CAGR of approximately 14%. According to Technavio (2025), North America contributes 41% to the growth of the global online auction market, and LiveAuctioneers sits squarely in that North American demand. More bidders and more volume mean more lots to catalog, and the manual approach does not scale with it.
This guide walks through a faster path: catalog each lot once in Gavelist, export a LiveAuctioneers-formatted file, and import it into your LiveAuctioneers catalog. The cataloging happens a single time, and the same catalog can also feed other platforms without redoing the work. If you are weighing tools first, our best AI cataloging software comparison covers the broader landscape.
What you need before you export
- Photos of each lot. Gavelist works from your lot images, so have them shot and grouped by lot.
- Your lots grouped or numbered the way they will sell, so each lot maps to its own catalog row.
- A LiveAuctioneers consignor or auction event already set up in your LiveAuctioneers account to receive the catalog.
Step 1: Catalog your lots once
Start by uploading your lot photos to Gavelist. In a single cataloging pass, Gavelist generates the title, description, category, and value estimate for each lot directly from the images. You still review and adjust, but you are editing generated drafts instead of writing every field from a blank page.
Speed is the reason this step matters. Gavelist catalogs about 1,000 lots in roughly 10 minutes on the description pass, about 6,000 lots per hour, running 8 concurrent workers. The manual baseline is far slower. According to Estimint's cataloging analysis (2025), manual cataloging of a 200-lot sale takes 46 to 64 hours, roughly 14 to 19 minutes per lot including photography, description writing, and data entry.
Step 2: Export the LiveAuctioneers file
Once the catalog is built, Gavelist produces a LiveAuctioneers-formatted export. The column layout is already mapped to LiveAuctioneers' catalog fields, so you are not hand-building a spreadsheet or guessing which of your columns belongs under which header. You select the lots, choose the LiveAuctioneers export, and Gavelist writes the file in the structure LiveAuctioneers expects.
Because the same catalog can be exported in other formats, this step does not bind your data to one destination. Gavelist exports to 10+ auction platforms, so the LiveAuctioneers file is one option drawn from the same cataloging work rather than a one-way commitment. The same logic extends to running a sale in several places at once, which is covered in our guide on how to list one auction on multiple platforms.
Step 3: Upload to LiveAuctioneers
With the file ready, open your LiveAuctioneers catalog manager and import it into the auction event you set up earlier. LiveAuctioneers handles catalog ingestion on their side; the point of the formatted export is to hand their importer a file that already matches the structure it expects, so the import is a straightforward upload rather than a data-cleanup project.
After importing, review the lots inside LiveAuctioneers before the sale goes live. Spot-check a sample of titles, descriptions, categories, and lot numbers to confirm everything mapped across as intended.
Why catalog once and export, instead of building per platform
Building a separate listing inside each marketplace means doing the cataloging work again every time. Cataloging once and exporting avoids that, and it changes what you keep and where your lots can go.
Gavelist is platform-independent: you catalog a lot one time and export it to any of 10+ platforms, so the catalog is not tied to a single marketplace. The deeper case for that approach is laid out in our analysis of platform-independent cataloging. Gavelist also charges a flat per-lot cataloging price and takes 0% of your auction sales, so you keep 100% of the hammer price, and the cataloging cost does not rise with how much your lots sell for.
That differs from a marketplace that takes a percentage of every sale. For example, HiBid (AuctionFlex 360) charges an online bidding fee of 2% of gross auction proceeds. That is a bidding-platform fee on your sales, not a cataloging fee, and it frames the contrast cleanly: a platform that takes a cut of what you sell, versus a cataloging tool that takes 0% and lets you export the same catalog anywhere. If HiBid is one of your destinations, the same catalog-once approach applies there too, as shown in our guide to HiBid CSV imports.
| What | Gavelist | A platform that locks you in |
|---|---|---|
| Cut of your auction sales | 0% (keep 100% of hammer) | Percentage-of-sales bidding fee (e.g., HiBid 2% of gross) |
| Where lots can go | Export to 10+ platforms, catalog once | Lots tied to that one marketplace |
| Cataloging cost | Flat per-lot ($0.15/lot PAYG, or monthly tiers) | Bundled / tied to platform fees |
Gavelist pricing is flat and published: pay-as-you-go at $0.15 per lot, or monthly tiers: Auctioneer at $79 per month (up to 1,000 lots), Pro at $160 per month (up to 2,500 lots), and Enterprise at $250 per month (up to 5,000 lots). The cataloging price is the same whether a lot hammers at $10 or $10,000.
Cataloging cost is also where the manual approach quietly adds up. According to AuctionMethod's 2026 Retail Liquidation Auction Industry report, industry benchmarks for manual cataloging range from 20 to 40+ lots listed per employee-hour, with labor costs of $0.50 to $3.00 per lot. According to Auction Item Manager (AIM), the cost-per-lot math works out to approximately $3 per lot at a fully loaded labor rate of $60 per hour and 20 lots per hour. Those are recurring labor costs that repeat every time a catalog is rebuilt for another platform.
How accurate are the value estimates?
Along with the title, description, and category, Gavelist can attach a value estimate to each lot: a value tier plus an approximate low-and-high dollar range. The estimates are grounded in real sold prices (completed and sold listings and category references) rather than asking prices, so the range reflects what comparable lots have actually brought rather than what sellers hoped to get.
Value estimates are an optional add-on. They are not a certified appraisal. Treat them as a likely, approximate range to support cataloging and reserve decisions, not a guaranteed valuation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I upload a Gavelist catalog directly to LiveAuctioneers?
Yes. Gavelist produces a LiveAuctioneers-formatted export with columns already mapped to LiveAuctioneers' catalog fields, so you import that file into your LiveAuctioneers catalog manager instead of building a spreadsheet by hand.
Does Gavelist take a percentage of my LiveAuctioneers sales?
No. Gavelist charges a flat per-lot cataloging price and takes 0% of auction sales, so you keep 100% of the hammer price. Any sales fees on LiveAuctioneers itself are separate and set by that platform.
How fast can Gavelist catalog a large auction before a LiveAuctioneers upload?
On the description pass, Gavelist catalogs about 1,000 lots in roughly 10 minutes, about 6,000 lots per hour, using 8 concurrent workers. That is the cataloging pass that produces titles, descriptions, and categories.
Can I export the same catalog to other platforms too?
Yes. The same catalog can be exported to 10+ platforms. Confirmed export formats include LiveAuctioneers, Proxibid, HiBid, and eBay, plus a generic CSV, so one cataloging pass can feed several marketplaces.
Sources
- Technavio, "Online Auction Market Growth Analysis." technavio.com
- Estimint, "AI Auction Cataloging for Auction Houses." estimint.com
- AuctionMethod, "Retail Liquidation Auction Industry Report (2026)." auctionmethod.com
- Auction Item Manager, "Tracking Cost Per Lot." aimhq.com