Import a catalog spreadsheet into Wavebid

Wavebid imports a CSV and asks you to say which Wavebid field each column fills; only the columns you map are imported. Only the lot number is required. Because an import cannot be undone, the mapping screen is where the work is.

Wavebid's mapping step forgives a lot of header differences, which is the reason to read the mapping twice: a column left unmapped is silently not imported, and a dollar sign in a money column is refused.

How sure is this page. Part of this format is not published by the vendor, or comes from a third party. Each fact is labeled at the foot of the page. Per the vendor's published documentation; check against your own import screen.

The file, column by column

11 columns; the vendor does not publish these header names, so they are plain ones that its mapping screen matches. Per the vendor's published documentation; check against your own import screen.

#	Header in the file	What goes in it
1	`Lot #`	the lot number (a sublot keeps its letter, like 27A)
2	`Name`	the lot title
3	`Description`	the description
4	`Quantity`	the quantity
5	`Category`	the category
6	`Starting Bid`	the start bid
7	`Reserve`	the reserve (private)
8	`Low Estimate`	the low estimate
9	`High Estimate`	the high estimate
10	`Consignor`	the consignor's own code, or the consignor's name
11	`Condition`	the condition note

Photographs

Photographs are named after the lot: 771-1.jpg is the first photograph of lot 771 and 771-2.jpg the second. A sublot keeps its letter (27A-1.jpg). The first photograph of a lot is its cover.

A sale with more than 1,000 photographs is split into numbered folders of up to 1,000 files, whole lots only, so a lot's photographs are never separated.

The rules the file has to meet

No title limit is documented, so the full title is written.
The description is plain text; line breaks stay as line breaks.
dimensions has no column of its own, so it is added to the description, one per line.
Money is a plain figure in the sale's currency: no symbol, no thousands separator, and a trailing .00 is dropped (180, 180.5).
The reserve is written into this file for the house's own use. Do not post the file where a bidder can read it.

The steps in Wavebid

Wavebid imports a CSV and asks you to map each column to a Wavebid field. Only mapped columns are imported.

Unzip the file you downloaded. You will have wavebid-catalogue.csv and a folder called images.
In Wavebid, open the auction on the Dashboard and choose Catalogs, Import Catalog.
On the Lot Import page keep Has header row? ticked. Tick Do not overwrite existing lots if you only want to add new lot numbers. Leave Delimiter as comma.
Click Choose File, select wavebid-catalogue.csv, and click Upload.
Mapping Columns: your headers are listed under Your Headers with a Mapped to field beside each, filled in from the column's name where it can. Lot # is the only field you must map. Map Name to the lot title. Drag any Wavebid header onto a column that is not mapped; a column with nothing under Mapped to is not imported.
Check that no money value has a dollar sign or a comma; Lotdesk writes plain figures.
Import. An import cannot be stopped once it has begun and cannot be undone, so read the mapping twice and keep the original file.
Photographs: use Wavebid's Uploading Photos, the Filename method, and pick the images folder; the names are lot numbers with a photograph number.

Wavebid publishes the field names you map to, not a fixed header list for the file. Lotdesk uses the names Wavebid's own article uses (Lot #, Name, Description, Starting Bid, Reserve) and plain names for the rest; map the rest by hand if Wavebid does not fill them in.
The photographs are named {lot}-{n}.jpg.
The reserve is in the Reserve column and is the house's own; do not post the file where a bidder can read it.

What each fact rests on

Status	What it says	Where it comes from
Vendor documentation	Wavebid imports a CSV and asks you to map each column to a Wavebid field; only columns that are mapped are imported. Only Lot # is required, and the lot title maps to Name.	Wavebid support, Importing Catalogs, dated 2026-06-08 (read through a search result's excerpt; a direct fetch was refused)
Vendor documentation	Money values take no dollar sign and no comma. An import cannot be stopped once begun and cannot be undone.	The same article
Vendor documentation	Photographs are matched to lots by file name through Uploading Photos.	Wavebid support, Uploading Photos
Unverified	Wavebid publishes the fields you map to, not a fixed header list for the file. Names other than Lot # and Name (Description, Starting Bid, Reserve, Low Estimate, High Estimate, Consignor, Condition) are Lotdesk's, and are mapped on screen.	Not published. Per the vendor's published documentation; check against your own import screen.

Date these sources were read: 2026-10-01. A format can change without notice; if your import screen shows something different, trust your screen and tell us.

Skip the typing: have Lotdesk write this file

Lotdesk writes this file from the lots you wrote at the piece, with the photographs named the way Wavebid matches them and a list of anything to look at before you import. Here is the real output for the sample sale, so you can open it before you decide:

Wavebid: the sample sale's CSV · with the photographs (ZIP)

The first 25 lots are free; the export files come with the $79 a month plan. More on exporting from Lotdesk to Wavebid.

Open a book — free for your first 25 lots Look at the sample auction first