Listings and Collections

Create, review, approve and publish lots, group them into collections, and set up the categories, custom fields and document checks behind them.

Everything you sell on Babylon starts as a listing: a single lot with its description, photographs, estimate, reserve and sale format. Auctions, orders and payouts all follow from a listing. This guide covers the Sell section of the admin sidebar: Overview, Listings, Collections, Listing Categories, Custom Fields and Documents Pending Redaction.

Before you start

What you can see in Sell depends on your role's permissions. In the standard roles:

Admin can do everything in this guide.
Listing Admin can view, create, edit and delete listings, but cannot approve them or manage collections, categories or custom fields.
Moderator can view and approve listings and redact documents.

Items you do not have permission for are hidden from the sidebar. See Team members and roles to adjust roles.

Some parts of the listing form depend on the features enabled for your account: live (in-person) sales, phygital items, AI Assist and seller confirmation only appear when those features are on. If you expect to see one and cannot, check your plan or contact Hammerd support.

Set up your categories (and any custom fields) before creating listings, because a listing's category decides which extra fields it asks for.

Overview

Sell → Overview is a dashboard for your inventory. It shows totals for all, draft, awaiting-approval and live listings, and flags work that needs attention: drafts to finish, listings awaiting approval, listings missing completed photos and media that failed to process. Each tile links to the matching list. Shortcut buttons let you Create listing, Import listings, Manage categories and Manage collections.

If your account uses consignment intake, the overview also points you to the Supply workstack, where consigned items are handled before they become listings. See Supply pipeline.

Listing categories

Go to Sell → Listing Categories. Categories organise your catalogue and control which custom fields each lot asks for. You need the permission to manage settings.

To create a category, click New category and fill in:

Parent: leave empty for a top-level category, or choose a parent to nest it.
Name and, optionally, Slug (generated from the name if left blank; it must be unique in your marketplace).
Description, Icon URL and Sort order as needed.
Enabled: disabled categories are hidden.
Art Market Participant scope: turn this on only if the category deals in art, antiques or other goods covered by high-value dealer anti-money-laundering rules. Sales in the category (and any category under it) are then screened after sale once they reach the configured threshold. See Fraud and AML monitoring.

Open a category to manage two further tabs:

Custom Fields: fields specific to this category, for example Maker or Year. Each has a Name, Slug, Type (Text, Number, Boolean, Date, URL, Select or Multi-select), Help text, Sort order and switches for Is required, Is searchable and Is filterable. For select types, enter one option per line; the help text on screen explains how to give an option a display label that differs from its stored value. Order effective fields lets you set the order in which marketplace-wide fields, fields inherited from parent categories and this category's own fields appear on forms.
Custom Sections: structured blocks shown to sellers under Additional Details, such as a provenance or condition section. Each has an admin Name, a Slug, a Seller title and Seller description, a Layout, optional hero image settings, and its own list of Fields.

From the category list you can Enable selected, Disable selected or delete several categories at once.

Custom fields

Sell → Custom Fields holds fields every new lot is asked for, whatever its category, for example a stock reference or a condition grade you always record. Fields that only apply to one kind of lot belong on that category instead. The form is the same as a category's custom fields. From the list you can Mark as required or Mark as optional in bulk. You need the permission to manage settings.

Listings

Go to Sell → Listings. The list opens on the Draft tab. Other tabs are Pending approval, All, Scheduled, Live, Ended, Concierge and Phygital. Every tab except All shows a count. Use the filters to narrow by sale format, category, seller, dates and more.

Listing statuses

Draft: being prepared, not visible to buyers.
Pending approval: submitted and waiting for a reviewer.
Scheduled: approved or published, visible, and opening for bidding at its start time.
Live: open for bidding or purchase.
Ended: the sale window has closed. The list shows whether it ended sold or unsold.
Cancelled: withdrawn by staff.
Sold, Closed and Expired are set by Babylon as a sale completes and cannot be changed by hand.

Create a listing as staff (concierge listings)

Any listing created from the admin panel is treated as a concierge listing: your team is cataloguing it on behalf of a seller. The seller is identified by the Client Name and Client Email you enter. If no seller account exists for that email, Babylon creates one and emails the seller so they can set a password.

Click New Listing.
Under Basic Information, enter the Listing Title, choose a Category and set the Item Condition and Tags.
Under Sale Format, choose Fixed price, Timed auction (English), Timed auction (Dutch) or Timed auction (Sealed bid). If live sales are enabled for your account you will also see Live (In-person). The form then shows only the pricing fields that format needs.
Complete Description, Custom Fields and Additional Details for the category.
Fill in Client Information with the seller's details.
Under Pricing & Bidding, set the Starting Bid and, if needed, Reserve Price, Buy Now Price and Bid Increment. Fields you leave empty use your defaults from Auction settings and bid increments; the form lists which defaults will apply. Also set the lot's Tax Status — Taxable (the default), Tax Exempt or Margin Scheme — which decides whether your account's Tax Rate is charged on this lot's price. See Fees, commission and sales models.
Upload photographs and video under Media.
Set the Start Time and Duration or End Time under Listing Schedule.
Optionally assign a Marketplace tier (see Marketplace tiers and authentication schemes).

Then choose how to save:

Create & schedule lot publishes the lot to your catalogue and opens it for bidding at its start time. You will be asked to confirm with Schedule lot.
Save as draft keeps it private so you can finish it later.

Use Save as draft if the lot still needs photographs, a condition report or a second read. Staff-created listings do not pass through the approval queue.

To add many lots at once, use Import Listings on the list page. Download the CSV or XLSX template, fill it in (the template notes explain the required columns), choose a Default status and upload. You can download an error report and Retry failed rows afterwards.

Listings submitted by sellers and the approval flow

Sellers can also create listings themselves from your storefront. What happens next depends on whether your account requires listing approval:

Approval required: seller listings arrive with the status Pending approval and appear on the Pending approval tab, where a reviewer must approve them before they can be scheduled.
Approval not required: seller listings are created as drafts.

Whether approval is required is set for your account by Babylon. Contact Hammerd support to change it.

To review a pending listing, open the row's More actions menu:

Click Preview as buyer to see the lot as buyers will.
Click Approve Listing, add optional Approval Notes and confirm. If the start time has passed (or none is set) the lot goes Live straight away; otherwise it becomes Scheduled. Its auction is created automatically at the same moment, so there is no separate step to open bidding.
Or click Reject Listing and enter a Rejection Reason (required). The listing goes back to Draft so the seller can edit and resubmit it.

View Approval History in the same menu shows every decision with its reviewer and notes. To approve or reject several listings, select them and use Approve Selected or Reject Selected; only listings that are pending approval are affected. Approving and rejecting require the permission to approve listings.

Whether the seller is notified of the decision depends on your notification settings. See Notifications and messaging.

What can stop a listing going live

Babylon refuses to put a lot on sale, with a message explaining why, in these cases:

Its seller has not passed identity verification and your seller eligibility setting or the listing's marketplace tier requires it. This is checked whenever a lot becomes scheduled or live.
Its marketplace tier does not permit its sale format or authentication details. This is checked whenever the listing is saved.
One of its documents is still waiting for redaction (see below). This blocks Approve Listing, Schedule for sale and Publish now.
A seller agreement for the lot is outstanding, when seller agreements are enabled, or the lot is still awaiting the seller's confirmation of the listing copy, when seller confirmation is enabled. These block Schedule for sale and Publish now. See Seller agreements.

The agreement and seller confirmation checks are applied by the bulk Schedule for sale and Publish now actions. Approving a listing, saving it with Create & schedule lot, or changing its Status on the edit form does not currently run those two checks, so if you rely on them, schedule lots with the bulk actions.

Seller confirmation

If seller confirmation is enabled for your account, Send for Seller Review in More actions emails the seller the drafted listing copy. The lot cannot be scheduled or go live until the seller confirms it. If the seller asks for a correction, Resolve Seller Correction lets you record how you dealt with it. View Seller Confirmation History shows every round.

For concierge sellers, Resend claim invite re-sends the email asking the seller to claim their account, and Send verification reminder reminds a seller who has claimed their account to complete identity verification.

Edit a listing

Click the edit icon on a row. The Sale format cannot be changed once a listing is scheduled, live or ended. Changing the start time, end time or reserve of a scheduled or live lot also updates its running auction. The Status field cannot be changed once a lot is sold, closed, cancelled or expired.

At the top of the edit page you will find Preview as buyer, Issue seller agreements (when seller agreements are enabled and you have permission to issue them), and Delete. A listing that already has orders or deal rooms cannot be deleted.

AI Assist

If AI listing copy is enabled for your account, an AI Assist button on the listing form helps you draft or refine the description, suggest titles, write meta and social copy, create a translated version and extract facts from photographs. Nothing is applied until you choose to use it. See AI listing copy.

Cancel a listing

For a scheduled or live listing, choose Cancel Listing from More actions, optionally give a Cancellation Reason, and confirm. The listing becomes Cancelled and its auction is cancelled. This needs the permission to cancel listings.

Other listing actions

Duplicate creates a new draft from an existing listing. You choose the title and category and whether to copy media, tags and custom fields, and how to handle the schedule (Clear times (safe default) or Shift by offset).
Add to Collection adds the listing to any collection that is not archived.

Select several listings to use the bulk actions: Schedule for sale (set one start and end time for all), Publish now (use each lot's existing times), Add to collection, Change category and Delete selected. Bulk actions report any lot they could not change and why, for example a lot that is sold, already has bids or is waiting for approval.

Documents pending redaction

Sellers and staff can upload supporting documents against a lot, for example invoices or certificates. Documents are stored privately and are only published once they have been cleared. Each uploaded document is scanned automatically for personal information; documents that need attention are placed in Sell → Documents Pending Redaction, which shows a count in the sidebar. A lot cannot be approved while any of its documents are still waiting here.

You need the permission to redact listing documents. To clear a document:

Open Sell → Documents Pending Redaction and click a row. You can also click Redact on a document in the listing's Media tab.
If the document has no type yet, choose one and click Continue. The type loads a checklist of what Must redact, what Must preserve, and where Judgement required.
Click and drag over each area to hide. Any boxes suggested by the automatic scan are already drawn; adjust, remove or keep them. Undo reverses your last change.
Click Confirm redaction. The cleaned version is prepared in the background and the document leaves the queue when it is done.

Only image documents (JPEG, PNG or WebP) can be redacted with this tool. For a PDF, the page lets you open the original to review, but you will need to handle redaction outside Babylon for now.

On a listing's Media tab you can also select documents and use Flag for redaction to send them to the queue manually, or Unflag to take them out.

Collections

A collection is a curated group of lots with its own page, hero image and running order: a themed sale, a single-owner consignment or a weekly selection. Go to Sell → Collections. You need the permission to manage collections.

Create a collection

Click New collection and complete the sections:

Basic Information: Collection Name, Slug (unique in your marketplace), Collection Type (Vendor Collection, Themed Collection, Operational, Physical Sale or Trade Storefront), Status (Draft, Scheduled, Live or Archived; draft collections stay hidden) and Sort Mode (Automatic (By Date), or Manual (Drag & Drop) to set the running order yourself).
Dates & Visibility: optional Start Date and End Date, and Promote collection to feature it across your marketplace.
Media & Content: a Hero Image (1600 by 900 pixels recommended) and a Description.
Relationships: optionally link a Vendor or an Event.
Sale Configuration: optional defaults for lots in this collection (see below).
Trade Programme: only shown when trade sales planning is enabled. Trade-eligible lets dealers see the collection in their sale calendar, and Premium slot (tier-gated) limits it to dealers whose tier includes premium slots. See Trade programme.
Metadata: free-form keys and values for reporting or integrations.

Add lots and set the order

Open the collection to see its Listings tab. Use Attach Listings to add lots, or add them from Sell → Listings with Add to Collection. With Manual (Drag & Drop) sort mode, drag rows to set the running order. Use detach to remove a lot from the collection without deleting it.

Collection sale configuration

The Sale Configuration section lets a collection override your marketplace auction defaults for its lots: Sale format, a Bid Increment Ladder, Minimum Reserve, Category Reserve Overrides, Soft Close (the collection's anti-sniping) and whether to show reserve status and allow proxy bidding.

Lock Mode decides how far individual listings may differ:

Strict (listings cannot override): the collection's values always apply.
Advisory (listings may override existing keys): the default.
Allow overrides (listings can replace defaults): listing values replace the collection's.

Note that the money fields in this section are labelled in cents (for example 250000 for 2,500.00), unlike the rest of the admin, which uses normal currency units. Category Reserve Overrides are keyed by category ID.

To push the configuration onto lots already in the collection, choose Apply Auction Config from the row's More actions menu. You can limit it to lots without their own overrides, force it over existing overrides, or restrict it to specific listings.

Other collection actions

Change Status moves a collection between draft, scheduled, live and archived.
Export Catalogue produces a CSV or PDF of the collection's lots and gives you a download link.
Create marketing email (on the collection's page, if you can manage marketing) starts an email campaign from the collection. See Email marketing and audiences.
A live collection cannot be deleted. Change its status first.

Common questions

I clicked Create and my lot is already public

Create & schedule lot publishes the lot. Use Save as draft when a lot is not ready. To take a scheduled or live lot down, use Cancel Listing.

Approve fails with a message about a document

One of the lot's documents is still in Documents Pending Redaction. Clear it there, then approve again.

A seller's listing never appeared in Pending approval

If your account does not require approval, seller listings are created as drafts. Look on the Draft tab.

I cannot change the sale format

The sale format is locked once a listing is scheduled, live or ended. Cancel the listing and duplicate it with the new format if you need to change it.