Renumber Lots

This article describes the process for making bulk changes to lot numbers that have already been entered or uploaded to AuctionBuilder. For information on changing the sequence of lots, see Reorder Lots.

This article contains the following sections:

• Formatting a Spreadsheet
• Renumbering Lots in Bulk
• Renumbering Individual Lots
• Troubleshooting

Formatting a Spreadsheet

If lots need to be added or deleted from the catalog, this should be done either before or after renumbering. The renumber spreadsheet should not be used as a method for adding or removing lots.

Important: The renumber function cannot be performed more than twice on the same catalog. If multiple lots need to be renumbered more than two times, consider deleting the catalog and starting again, or renumbering lots individually.

A spreadsheet will need to be prepared in order to renumber lots in bulk:

1. Click on the Bulk Loader link located on the left side of AuctionBuilder under Auction Tools.
2. Use the Select Catalog drop-down to select the auction event.
3. Click the Export Catalog button. Save the resulting file as a comma-separated value (.CSV) file format.
4. Open the exported catalog spreadsheet and delete all columns except for the column containing the Lot Number (column A). This column should list the temporary lot numbers currently listed in the catalog. 
5. Change the column header of column A from “Lot Number” to “Old Lot Number”.
6. Change the column header for column B to “New Lot Number”.
7. Type the new lot numbers into column B.                                                                                                                                   
   • Every lot in the catalog must be listed on the renumber spreadsheet.
   • If the lot number will remain the same, it should still be included on the renumber spreadsheet with the same lot number listed in both column A and column B.
   • There cannot be more than one of the same number in the "New Lot Number" column. For example, two lots cannot be assigned number 12, but one lot could be 12 while the other could be 12A. Lot numbers can contain one alpha numeric character.
   • Remove any rows that do not contain lots.
   • Lot numbers cannot contain hyphens, spaces, or special characters.
   • Lot numbers cannot exceed six characters.
8. Once all the new lot numbers have been entered, save the spreadsheet as a comma-separated value (.CSV) file format.

Renumbering Lots in Bulk

A spreadsheet will need to be prepared prior to renumbering lots in bulk.

Important: The renumber function cannot be performed more than twice on the same catalog. If multiple lots need to be renumbered more than two times, consider deleting the catalog and starting again, or renumbering lots individually.

1. Navigate back to AuctionBuilder and click on the Bulk Loader link located on the left side of the page under Auction Tools.
2. Use the Select Catalog drop-down to select the auction event.
3. Click the Renumber Catalog button.                                                                                                                     
4. Click the Choose File button and select the saved renumber spreadsheet that was formatted above.
5. Select Yes for the Does the first row in your file contain titles for each column? option.
6. Click the Submit File button. A confirmation message will appear indicated whether or not the upload was successful. For errors, see the Troubleshooting section below.                                                             

Renumbering Individual Lots

1. Click the Catalog link at the bottom of the auction event section on the Dashboard. The Catalog Generator page will open.
2. Use the Lot selector panel on the right side of the page to select the lot.
3. Enter the new lot number into the Lot Number field.
4. Click the Update button. A confirmation message will appear.

There cannot be more than one lot in a catalog with the same lot number. If the new lot number is already in use, it will also need to be assigned a new or temporary lot number. For example, if lot 4 needs to become lot 12, but there is already a lot 12 in the catalog, change lot 12 to 12A and then change lot 4 to lot 12. Lot 12A can stay as 12A or be assigned a new lot number not already in use.

Troubleshooting

Renumber Exceptions

The renumber spreadsheet should not be used as a method for adding or removing lots. There must be a one-to-one match for all lots, meaning that if there are 100 lots in the catalog, there should be 100 lots on the renumber spreadsheet. If a lot was excluded from the renumber spreadsheet, "~TEMP" will be appended to the end of the lot number.

There are two options for resolving this error:

1. 1. Cancel the upload and add the missing lot to the renumber spreadsheet.
   2. Continue with the upload, but then manually add the lot to the catalog using the Catalog Generator.

New Lot Number is Listed More Than Once

If the same lot number was listed in the “New Lot Number” column twice in the spreadsheet, an error will be generated and the impacted lots will have "~TEMP" appended to the end of the lot number. 

There are two options for resolving this error:

1. 1. Cancel the upload and correct the issue on the renumber spreadsheet.
   2. Continue with the upload, but then manually edit lot numbers.

Renumber Button is Missing

The renumber function cannot be performed more than twice on the same catalog. If the function has already been performed twice, the Renumber button will no longer be available. If multiple lots need to be renumbered more than two times, consider deleting the catalog and starting again, or renumbering lots individually.