Part 1 - Auction Lion Info

For setting up an auction, the central part of it is the lions & their information.

What Info To Provide About The Lion:
Some auctions choose to list all the lion's info; their base, mane, mane color, markings, eyes, fertility, etc. While other auctions do what I do, which is minimal info: a name for the lion so that I can tell when people bid on it, if they're clean or dirty, and any information that might increase their value (mutations, BO or popular markings, rosettes, etc).
I've run 5 different auction threads in the past and I've tried both the method of listing all of their info and the minimalistic method (my current method), and I've found the minimalistic method to be the best option.
Reason #1: Listing all of the lion's information takes a lot of time. And many times lions are auto-bought, so it makes it seem like a waste of time to go through all that work.
Reason #2: It saves you from liability if you instead make the images clickable so that it's on the bidder to check out the lion's information.

What Coding Do I Use On My Thread:

Below is the coding I use:

<*b*><*i*>Name, info<*/i*><*/b*>
<*a href*=*"LIONS PAGE LINK"*><*img src*=*'100% OPACITY IMAGE LINK'*/><*/a*>
<*a href*=*"LIONS PAGE LINK"*><*img src*=*'NORMAL IMAGE LINK'*/><*/a*>
<*b*>Starting Bid: <*/b*>
<*b*>Current Bid: <*/b*>
<*b*>Minimum Increase: <*/b*>
<*b*>Auto Buy: <*/b*>

The asterisks(*'s) are there so that the coding doesn't activate - so to make it work, the *'s need to be removed.

All of the coding I use is available on HTML guide threads, such as this one: HTML GUIDE

Regarding Bid Format:
I've seen people format the bids section for lions differently. Some people put the current bid on top and have the starting bid, minimum increase, and auto-buy amounts below it. It all depends on your preference.
I sort mine on my thread using how my train of thought would work if I was a bidder. Thought #1: "I'd like to bid on this lion; I wonder what their starting price is" - Starting Bid. Thought #2: "I think I'll bid on them; has anyone else bid on them?" - Current Bid. Thought #3: "How much do I need to bid to make mine the higher bid?" - Minimum Increase. Thought #4: "Nah, I think I'm just gonna auto-buy the lion. What do I have to pay for that?" - Auto Buy.
Obviously, it's different for everyone - so just go with what you prefer. There's no correct option.
As a side note: In my bid section, I use the & emojis that Lioden offers - you can find a list of them at the bottom right corner of composing private messages, creating forum threads, or replying to forum threads. I feel like they're nicer than typing out SB & GB - but again, it's up to preference.

How To Create The Images For Your Lion:
Now to the complicated part, the longest part of putting an auction together is creating the images. You have to use an image hosting site for them to work on the forum, so it's a longer process than just copying and pasting an image, unfortunately.
Personally, I use Imgur for my images. Each image-hosting website is different, so I'll just give you the instructions on how to use Imgur (since it's the one I use the most).

Step 1: Go to the lion's page that you'd like to create an image of and import them to the Wardrobe. From here you can choose to pose them, increase their opacity, or whatever else you'd like to do to them before taking the image.

Step 2: Use Snipping Tool (if on Windows) or, if you're on an Apple computer, use Shift+Command+4 then draw a box around the image you want to capture. There is also the option to right-click the image and select "Save Image as", but I've found issues with that in the past (it not saving or the image corrupting or being blank).

Step 3: Now that you have your image, go to Imgur. Click on the colored circle next to your username - for example, my user name starts with an M on there so the colored circle next to my username is green and has an M in it. Then select Images.

Step 4: Once on the images page, drag & drop the pictures directly onto the page. You can drag & drop as many as you want at a time. The most I've ever done at a time was 45, but I'm sure you can do more than that, it just might take a little longer for it to process.

Step 5: Once your images appear on the page, click on one and the image and it's information will pop up. To add the image to the forum, you need the "Direct Link". If you look at my coding above, this direct link would go where it says "100% OPACITY IMAGE LINK" or "NORMAL IMAGE LINK".

And that's the final step. Once that image link is in the coding, you're all set to post it.

Now Let's Put It All Together:
Below is an example of one of my lions if she were to be up for auction with her coding activated and with her coding un-activated so that you can see the links and their placement:

Gunpowder - CLEAN, Frozen


Starting Bid: 100  
Current Bid:
Minimum Increase: 50
Auto Buy: 2 

<*b*><*i*>Gunpowder - CLEAN, Frozen<*/i*><*/b*>
<*a href*=*"https://www.lioden.com/lion.php?id=794169784352"*><*img src*=*'https://i.imgur.com/3w6XsO0.png'/*><*/a*>
<*a href*=*"https://www.lioden.com/lion.php?id=794169784352"*><*img src*=*'https://i.imgur.com/MIPvTlg.png'/*><*/a*>
<*b*>Starting Bid: <*/b*> 100  
<*b*>Current Bid: <*/b*>
<*b*>Minimum Increase: <*/b*> 50
<*b*>Auto Buy: <*/b*> 2 


Helpful Tip: HTML doesn't work in your Journal, so you can copy & paste the coding (without *'s) straight into your Journal and work on it without having to work about it activating.

Part 2 - Auction Rules/Guidelines

No auction thread is identical - you'll find different rules/guidelines where ever you look. But here are the most common ones you'll see (in no particular order):

• No Begging
This is one of the most common - if an auction thread doesn't start out with this rule, you're almost guaranteed that it'll be added very soon after the auction starts. Unfortunately, new players don't pay attention to the code of conduct when they join and tend to beg or ask for discounts. This rule is in place to avoid any of that behavior.

• Only Bid What You Have
Also, very common. Players will bid with items or currency that they don't have, yet. This rule is to avoid people messaging you saying, "I know I said I'd give you Buffalo Scrotum for that lion, but I need a couple of days to get the Heart Shells I need to buy one". Then you're stuck feeding & playing with that lion for a few more days than you had planned.

• Be Respectful
I've seen this a lot. I don't use it personally, because I assume players would be respectful since it's required by the Code of Conduct (in no specific terms). Though I suppose if other auction threads have gotten heated before, I can see why they'd add this as a rule.

• 1 is equivalent to ???
Most auctions will have this, where they let players know what they equivalate 1 to. Because the value of on the GB Sales fluctuates so much, most auction thread owners will pick one price and stick with it - normally somewhere between 800-1200 . The most common number you'll see is 1 = 1,000 .

• No Backing Out Of Bids
This tends to be a big problem, to be perfectly honest. Players go on hiatus unexpectedly, or don't have enough funds and just ghost you - there's a plethora of reasons why it might happen. If players break this rule, it normally gets them blacklisted from the thread.
I do not have this rule and that is because I understand life happens and I don't want to chase away possible bidders just because they couldn't log on for a week. My way of handling this is by auctioning my cubs as soon as possible; that's why many times I'll message bidders that the cub they auto-bought it took young (<5 months) to be put in a trade so I'll send them the trade as soon as possible. This makes it so that if a player does back out, the cub will probably only be 7 months to a year by the time the next auction starts - so I can just re-add them to the auction and make a personal note to myself about that player. I do keep notes though and if a player backs out twice then I no longer consider them an eligible bidder - luckily this hasn't happened yet.

And on that note, this takes us to our next topic!

What Is A Blacklist?
To start off, per the Code of Conduct 1.14c, blacklisting is considered a personal attack so it is not permitted. In other words, do not post a public blacklist on your auction thread because the mods will absolutely remove it.
Technically though, the Code of Conduct doesn't say anything about "don't ignore other players" - so the best way to avoid breaking that rule is to make a list that only you can see of players you deem intelligible to bid and if those players bid then simply ignore them (and if you want to, you can PM them just to let them know that you no longer find them to be eligible to bid on your auction thread). The Code of Conduct only says you have to be "respectful", it does not say you have to be nice & jolly to everyone. So respectfully tell the player what is going on and then respectfully ignore them if they try to bid.

Other Guidelines Regarding Liability:
You'll see some auction threads that have guidelines in their rules such as "images show opacity at 100%", "poses are only to show their personality and do not come with the lion", or "backgrounds are only for aesthetics and are not included". These statements are all to avoid the liability of being called a scam or a liar. These guidelines put the responsibility on the bidder to do things such as look at the lion's page to see how they look not at 100% opacity.
I've also seen some auction threads that have statements such as, "If a cub is titled as clean, this was based only on a quick glance through their heritage for inbreeding. It is your responsibility as a bidder to confirm this". Again, this is to put the responsibility on the bidder.

Part 3 - Auction Layout

There are thousands of ways you can lay out your auction thread. Some people use CSS to make their thread different colors and add boxes while other people only HTML - some people don't use either. It's all based on preference; but here are my two cents.

I find CSS to be distracting - it also makes your thread slower to load and it tends to format weirdly on mobile devices, which many players use when on Lioden.

No HTML looks disorganizer - it's hard to make the things that need to pop pop if everything is exactly the same. A small amount of HTML goes a long way.

And with those three things, you're all set! Enjoy the ups & downs of auctioning - it tends to be a rollercoaster, so have fun with it