User Instructions

Everything Catalog Caddy does, in one place. This matches the built-in instructions inside the app (click the ? icon in the top toolbar), so it's here too for anyone comparing before buying, or just prefers reading it on the web.

Photography Tips

The quality of your photos is the single biggest factor in how good your titles and descriptions turn out. Image detection can only describe what it can actually see, so a few habits go a long way.

Photograph measurements

Include a close-up shot with a ruler or caliper reading somewhere in the lot's photo set. This lets the description mention accurate sizes and dimensions instead of leaving them out.

Capture detail shots

Close-ups of maker's marks, hallmarks, signatures, and other identifying details give it what it needs to write a more specific description. Without a clear photo of a mark, it will not guess at it, on purpose.

Keep the background clean

Avoid other lots or clutter in frame, it can confuse which item the photo is actually of.
Consistent, even lighting helps colors and materials read correctly.
A few different angles per item (front, back, any damage) beats one photo from far away.

Pro tip: photograph the lot number sticker as the last photo in that lot's set, before moving to the next lot. It keeps your photos in order and makes it easy to confirm you grouped the right range in the Image Pool.

Clean up before you export

Don't want that measurement or lot-sticker close-up in your final listing photos? After running image detection, hover a photo inside a lot card and click the X to send it back to the pool. It won't affect the title or description already generated.

Image Pool

The Image Pool (left side of the main screen) is where newly uploaded photos land before they're grouped into lots.

Uploading photos

Click Bulk Upload Images in the top toolbar and select as many photos as you want at once. Large batches process in the background with a progress counter, files that are exact duplicates (same name and size) of something already uploaded are skipped automatically.

Grouping photos into a lot

Click the first photo of a lot, then click the last photo of that lot. Everything between them (in the order shown in the pool) becomes one lot automatically.
If a lot is only one photo, click it once, then click the Create Lot button that appears instead of clicking a second photo.
Click Clear Selection at any point to cancel and start over.

Because grouping depends on photo order, it helps to upload photos in the same order you shot them, one lot's photos right after another's. If you use the lot-number-sticker tip from Photography Tips, it's easy to visually confirm a range before you click the second photo.

Searching

Use the search box above the pool to filter by filename, useful for large batches where you want to jump to a specific photo instead of scrolling.

Photos that come back to the pool

Removing a photo from a lot (the X on its thumbnail) or deleting a whole lot returns those photos to the pool rather than deleting them, nothing is lost by mistake.

Cataloged Lots

The Cataloged Lots panel (right side) shows one card per lot you've grouped. Each card holds everything about that lot in one place.

What's on a lot card

Photo thumbnails on the left, numbered in order. Hover one and click the X to send it back to the pool without deleting the lot.
Upload Photo adds a new photo straight into that lot, skipping the pool.
Pull from Pool appears when you have photos selected in the pool, click it to add those selected photos into this specific lot. Handy for a photo you missed during grouping.
Lot Number, Seller Code, Shipping, Est. Min $, Est. Max $ fields, all editable directly on the card.
Title and Description, generated by image detection or typed by hand.

Shipping availability

The Shipping toggle marks whether you're willing to ship this lot to an absentee or online bidder, as opposed to local pickup only. It defaults to Yes on every new lot, click it to switch to No for oversized, fragile, or pickup-only items. This maps directly to Auction Flex's Hibid Shipping Availability column.

Presale estimates

Est. Min $ and Est. Max $ set the presale estimate range shown to bidders, giving them a sense of what an item is likely to sell for before bidding opens.

Not every field needs a value. Seller Code, Est. Min $, and Est. Max $ can all be left blank for a lot where they don't apply, nothing requires every field to be filled in before you export or copy your data.

Retrying or deleting a lot

Hover a card to reveal a sparkle icon (rerun image detection for just this lot) and a trash icon (delete the lot and return its photos to the pool).

Autosave

Everything you do is saved automatically to your computer about 1.5 seconds after you stop typing or making changes, the "Saving... / Saved" indicator in the top right confirms it. Closing and reopening the app brings your batch back exactly where you left it, until you click Start New Batch.

Description and Title

Image detection technology looks at every photo in a lot together and writes a title and description for it.

Running it

Run Image Detection on All Drafts (above the lot list) processes every lot that hasn't been run yet, several lots at a time in parallel.
The sparkle icon on an individual lot card reruns just that one lot, useful after adding a photo or fixing an error.

What it costs

Each lot costs exactly 1 credit, the first time either image detection or the image export touches it, whichever happens first. Running detection and then exporting the same lot (the normal workflow) is still only 1 credit, not 2.

Accuracy

It only describes what it can actually see in your photos. It's built to decline guessing things like maker's marks, model numbers, or materials that aren't clearly visible rather than making something up, better source photos produce better results (see Photography Tips).

Treat generated titles and descriptions as a strong starting draft, not a final, verified listing. Always review before importing into Auction Flex, especially for anything valuable or where accuracy really matters.

Editing

Both fields are plain text boxes you can edit any time, before or after running detection. Title is capped at 50 characters to match Auction Flex and HiBid's own limit, it's trimmed automatically if needed.

Seller Code

Seller Code identifies which consignor a lot belongs to, matching Auction Flex's own "Seller Code" import column. It's optional, leave it blank for lots where a seller code doesn't apply.

How it works

The Seller Code field in the toolbar above your lots is the default, whatever you type there is automatically filled onto every new lot you create from that point forward.
Each lot's code can still be overridden individually right on its card, in case a batch mixes items from more than one consignor.
It's saved on your computer between sessions, so you won't need to retype it every time you catalog for the same consignor.

Start Lot Number

Start Lot Number sets what number the next lot you create will begin at.

How it works

Each new lot is numbered automatically: Start Lot Number plus however many lots already exist in the current batch. You don't have to number lots by hand.
Any lot's number can still be edited afterward on its own card, useful for skipping a number or fixing a typo.
It's saved on your computer, so if you always start at 1, that's what you'll see next time too. Remember to update it before a batch that shouldn't start at 1.

License Key

Your license key connects the app to your account: it's what tracks your credit balance and yearly access.

Setting it up

Paste the key from your purchase confirmation email into the License Key field in the toolbar.
The eye icon shows or hides the key, it's masked by default like a password field.
Once a valid key is entered, a pill appears next to it showing your remaining credits. Hover it to see your yearly renewal date and credit expiration date.

Running low or expired

If you run out of credits or your yearly access lapses, cataloging pauses automatically and a banner appears with a "Buy more credits" or "Renew access" button, it opens your browser straight to the right purchase page.

Save the email containing your key somewhere safe: a password manager, a starred or archived folder. Your key doesn't expire on its own, but there's no self-service way to look it up again if the email is lost, this is intentional, since an easy resend-by-email option would make it easy for someone else to request your key using a publicly listed auction house email address. If you do lose it, contact support and we'll sort it out manually.

Spreadsheet

Once your lots have titles, descriptions, and everything else filled in, you have two ways to get that data out of Catalog Caddy: copy and paste, or download a spreadsheet file. Both use the same column order Auction Flex expects: Lot Number, Title, Description, Seller Code, Hibid Shipping Availability, Presale Estimate Min Each, Presale Estimate Max Each.

Blank cells are fine

Not every column needs a value for every lot. Seller Code, Presale Estimate Min, and Presale Estimate Max are all optional, if a lot doesn't have a seller code or you don't want to publish an estimate, just leave that cell empty. Auction Flex accepts blank cells in these columns without issue.

Copy and paste

Copy for Spreadsheet (top toolbar, and again inside the Cataloged Lots panel) copies every lot, every column, ready to paste directly into a spreadsheet cell.
The individual buttons in the Cataloged Lots panel, Lots, Title, Descriptions, Codes, Shipping, copy just one column at a time, useful for pasting over a single column in a sheet you already have open.

Download a spreadsheet file

Download Spreadsheet saves your current batch as a real .csv file you can open directly, no copy-paste needed. It's available in the same two places as Copy for Spreadsheet.

Editing after you copy or download

Once your data is in a spreadsheet, whether pasted in or downloaded as a file, it's just a normal spreadsheet. Feel free to edit it there before importing into Auction Flex: fill in a seller code you left blank, fix a typo in a title or description, or flip a lot's shipping availability from No to Yes. That's often faster than going back into Catalog Caddy, especially for a quick fix across many lots at once.

Opening it in Excel

Downloaded file: double-click it, Excel opens .csv files natively.
Copy and paste: open a blank workbook, click cell A1, and paste (Ctrl+V, or Cmd+V on Mac).

Opening it in Google Sheets

Downloaded file: in Sheets, go to File > Import > Upload, and choose the file.
Copy and paste: open a blank sheet, click cell A1, and paste (Ctrl+V, or Cmd+V on Mac).

Getting your images into Auction Flex

Click Export Images (.zip) in the top toolbar to download every photo renamed by lot and position (for example, the third photo of lot 12 becomes 12-3.jpg, the exact pattern Auction Flex expects, choose a different naming style from the Naming dropdown if needed). Unzip the download, then in Auction Flex 360 go to Pre Auction > Lot Images > Select Lot Images and choose the unzipped photos. Auction Flex reads the lot number out of each filename and attaches every photo to the right lot on its own, no manual matching required.

Getting your lot info into Auction Flex

Save your copied or downloaded data as a CSV matching the column order above, then in Auction Flex go to Pre Auction > Lots > Import Lots, click Auto-Map, and upload the file. Because the columns already match Auction Flex's own expected format, it maps everything automatically, no manual field matching needed.

Download a blank spreadsheet template matching this exact column order, useful if you want to build a sheet from scratch before generating any lots.

Enable the Optimize ZIP for Web/HiBid checkbox for batches over 20 lots, it resizes photos before zipping to keep file sizes manageable and prevent browser slowdowns on large exports, without sacrificing the detail HiBid listings need.