This is the same auction system that has raised more than $8.7 million for horse associations since 2020. The software does not change between a stallion service auction and a Hereford bull sale. The terminology and lot fields are set up for what you are selling. The platform itself works the same.
Why Most Auction Platforms Are the Wrong Answer
Most online livestock auction software follows the same model. The provider hosts the auction on their domain, under their brand. Your bidders create accounts on their site.
They take a percentage of every sale. They own the bidder data. When the auction ends, your operation gets a check and they keep the relationship with the people who bid.
That model is fine if you are a one-off seller. It is the wrong model for a producer running an annual production sale, a horse sale manager building a buyer base, or a youth organization that wants its bidders coming back next year.
Big Sky's model is different in three specific ways.
1. The Auction Lives Under Your Brand
If we built your website, the auction integrates directly into it matching your brand. Buyers never have to leave your site.
If we did not build your main website, we'll build a dedicated auction site on a branded domain (typically "your-operation's-name-Auction.com" or Sale.com) and design it to visually match your main site. Bidders never feel like they jumped to a different brand.
Either way, the auction runs on a Big Sky-controlled server with Cloudflare Enterprise. That gets you the uptime, security, speed, and email deliverability a live auction needs.
2. You Own the Bidder Data
Every account, every bid, every buyer relationship is yours. We do not market to your bidders. We do not sell their information. We do not use it to power someone else's competing sale.
The data lives in your auction site and stays in your control, and your admin can export everything to Excel any time.
3. We Do Not Take a Percentage of Sales
You pay us once to build it and an ongoing maintenance fee. We do not take a cut of livestock sold, bids placed, or money raised. Whether your sale moves 30 head or 300, our pricing does not move.
If you want to pass credit card processing costs back to bidders, the platform can be configured to add a convenience fee, but that money goes to cover your processor, not to us.
How the Livestock Auction Platform Works
How We Work Together
We work directly with one person at your operation throughout the auction process. That person typically has a team behind them (your sale manager, treasurer, board, or club leaders) but we communicate through a single decision-maker so updates happen fast and nothing gets stuck in committee.
Setup
The platform is the same proven system across every auction we run. Bidder registration, bid increments, payment flows, security, email logic, and reporting stay consistent because they have been refined over hundreds of real auctions.
The configurable pieces (lot categories, opening bid amounts, extended bidding rules, whether to require a credit card on file) get set up to match how your sale wants to run.
Catalog
You or your team submits the lot information to the admin of the sale with the animal ID or tag number, breed, age, sex, weight, lineage, EPDs, photos, and video. The admin uploads everything into the platform.
We do not give individual consignors direct upload access. Years of running these auctions taught us that catalog quality stays right only when one set of hands does the upload.
Live Auction Window
Bidders register, browse the catalog, and bid through your auction website. The platform handles maximum bidding (the same way eBay works), bid increments, favorites for tracking specific lots, automatic email notifications throughout the auction, and extended bidding when bids come in close to the auction's end.
Extended bidding stops last-minute bid grabbing and gives real bidding wars a chance to develop, which is often where the final sale prices climb the highest.
Close-Out and Payment
When the auction ends, winning bidders receive an email with their lots and payment instructions. They can pay through the platform using the credit card on file, or by check if your operation accepts checks.
From there, your team handles the rest of the transaction (pickup, delivery, transfer of papers, registration paperwork) directly with the buyer. The platform's job is the auction window itself, not the rest of the sale.
Reporting and Records
Every auction generates full reports of bids, bidders, winning amounts, payment status, and buyer information. All data is exportable to Excel so your team can reconcile accounts, follow up with buyers, and analyze sale-over-sale performance.
What the Auction Software Includes
The features built into every Big Sky auction. Some are configurable and some are always on.
For Bidders
- Maximum bidding (the way eBay works), with automatic email when your max is exceeded
- Extended bidding to prevent last-minute bid grabbing and give bidding wars time to develop
- Favorites, so bidders can track the lots they care about
- Configurable bid visibility (show all bids, winning bid only, or losing bid notification)
- Email verification at bidder registration
- Automatic email notifications for registration, bidding, outbids, wins, and payments
- Automatic password reset by email
- Multiple photos and YouTube video support per lot
- Visual winning and losing bid indicators in real time
- Lot search by name, tag, or category
- Designed to work on a phone (the majority of bids now come from phones)
- Configurable paging controls for the catalog
For Administrators
- Credit card required before bidding (optional, recommended to weed out non-serious bidders)
- Pay by check or credit card at auction close
- Optional credit card convenience fee, configurable per auction
- Administrator reports built to simplify post-auction work
- Annual platform updates from client feedback at no additional charge
Security and Trust
- Cloudflare Enterprise security on every auction site
- Stripe payment processing (the industry leader, PCI-compliant, no card data ever touches your site)
- Backed by our 24-hour update guarantee
Where the Auction Platform Came From
In 2007, the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association asked Tom Bruch to build them an online stallion service auction. Tom wrote the original code from scratch. The platform worked. Word got around the horse industry. Then it got around the cattle industry. Then 4-H clubs and FFA chapters started asking if it would work for youth livestock auctions. The answer kept being yes.
The platform has been refined by hundreds of real auctions across the horse and livestock industries. Every annual update comes directly from clients telling us what they need. That ongoing refinement, from real users running real events, is the entire reason the platform works as well as it does.
Who Uses the Livestock Auction Platform
Cattle Producers
Production sales, bull sales, replacement female sales, ranch dispersals, and breed-specific sales (Angus, Hereford, Simmental, and others). The platform handles registered cattle with EPDs and lineage records, commercial cattle, and everything in between.
Horse Sale Managers
Production horse sales, dispersal sales, and consignment sales. The platform works the same as our stallion service auction software, configured for actual horses rather than breedings.
4-H Clubs and FFA Chapters
Youth livestock auctions for chapter fundraisers and youth fundraising events. The platform handles bidder registration, online bidding, and payment so youth members get their proceeds promptly.
“The platform does not care what is in the lot. A bull, a yearling, a 4-H steer, or a Quarter Horse weanling. The catalog gets uploaded, the bidders register, the auction runs, the platform does its job.” — Tom Bruch
How Pricing Works
Every auction we build is configured for the operation running it, so the final price depends on what you need. A small annual bull sale with 25 lots is a different build from a major production sale with 200 lots and a national bidder base.
What we will tell you up front:
- We do not take a percentage of sales. Ever.
- We do not charge per bid, per bidder, or per lot.
- We give you a fixed quote before any work begins. The price we quote is the price you pay. Read the full 3-Way Guarantee.
- Ongoing maintenance is a flat monthly or annual fee with unlimited updates.
The first step is a 30-minute conversation about your sale. We will ask how it runs now, what is working, what is not, and what you want the platform to do. Most of the time you will have a quote before we hang up.
Backed by the 3-Way Guarantee
28-day money-back. 24-hour updates. 100% transparent pricing. No one else offers this.
Common Questions About Our Livestock Auction Platform
Does the auction have to be on a website you built?
Yes. The auction runs on a Big Sky controlled server because we need full command over security, email delivery, payment integration, and live auction support. We use Cloudflare Enterprise for security and speed, and we do not run this on any infrastructure outside our own. If we did not build your operation's main website, we build you a dedicated auction site on a branded domain that looks like your main site so bidders feel like they never left.
Can you integrate with our existing payment processor?
We only integrate with Stripe. Stripe is the industry leader in secure payment processing, they store all of the credit card information on their PCI-compliant servers, and your website never touches a card number. That protects you, your buyers, and us. We will not run an auction through a less secure processor.
Can consignors upload their own lot information?
No. Lot information is submitted to your auction admin (your sale manager, club leader, or designated point person) and your admin uploads it into the platform. We have found over many years that catalog consistency only stays right when one set of hands does the upload. We can build an online form to make consignor submission easier, but the upload itself stays with your admin.
What happens to the data when the auction ends?
It stays in your auction website. Your admin has full access. Reports are exportable to Excel for reconciliation and analysis. We do not collect, sell, or share buyer information.
How long does it take to build a new livestock auction platform?
Fast. Once we have all the information we need, we can have the platform live within 7 days, often sooner. Before the real auction goes live, we run a test auction so your admin can practice running it and your team can get comfortable with how it works.
Do you provide bidder support?
No. Bidder support is handled by the auction itself. Every auction site includes terms of bidding, a “How to Bid” guide, and instructions inside the automated bid emails. Bidder questions about a specific lot (health records, transfer paperwork, pickup logistics, etc.) go to your sale manager.
What is onlinelivestockauctions.com?
It is a separate website we maintain that explains online livestock auctions to the public and lists every currently active Big Sky client auction. It gives our auction clients extra exposure. If you run an auction with us, your auction shows up on onlinelivestockauctions.com during your bidding window, and bidders looking for upcoming livestock auctions can find you there.
Let's Talk About Your Auction
If your operation is thinking about running an online auction, or if you are running one on a platform that takes a cut of every sale and owns your buyer data, the first step is a 30-minute conversation. We will tell you what we would build, what it would cost, and how we would set it up either inside your existing website or on a branded auction site that matches it.
Or call us directly at 979-217-1544