Batch Builder: Don’t Publish Half a Batch at 2AM

A batch is a curated collection of devices sold together: 200 mixed-grade Dell Latitudes, 50 ThinkPad T14s with Grade A cosmetic, a pallet of monitors in three sizes. The batch is the atomic unit of sale — buyers acquire the batch, not the individual devices. The batch builder at /market/batches/create is the wizard that produces a coherent one without forgetting steps.

The four steps

1. Select. Pick the devices, by hand or by dynamic criteria (category, manufacturer, grade range). Search and filter the available inventory, select everything that matches, or arrive with a preselection from the inventory list or an item page. The wizard only offers devices that are free on the channel and available in stock: anything already in an Auction lot draft, already at Auction, sitting in another draft or ready batch, or on hold simply is not on the menu.

2. Composition. A preview of what you just assembled: device count, total value, average value per unit, category count, grade distribution, manufacturers, and warnings such as stale grading or missing accessories. This is the step where “50 ThinkPads” turns out to be 47 ThinkPads and 3 Latitudes with a tag problem.

3. Price and terms. Title, description, owner company, pricing method (per unit, per batch, or open bid), the matching price or reserve, visibility (public, private, or invite only), payment terms, delivery terms and warranty days.

4. Review. Save as draft, or publish now. Publishing puts the devices on the Market channel and creates the listing; if any device is already on Market or at Auction, the publish fails as a whole. One device, one active sales channel. Optimism is fine, double-selling is not.

Photos

A batch has no photo upload of its own. The pictures buyers see on the listing are the photos of the devices in it, taken in Core or on the mobile capture screen, and the seller picks one of them as the cover from the listing page. Photograph the devices once; every listing and lot they end up in inherits the pictures.

Why a wizard

Because a batch without a price or a description is not ready for a buyer. The wizard refuses to advance without the required fields, so a batch that lands in production is one a buyer can actually buy.

One batch, one channel

A Market batch is a Market preparation. It never quietly turns into an auction lot: if you want the same free devices under the hammer, you start from Auction inventory or /auction/create and the platform creates a separate lot draft. The channel-exclusivity article explains why the guard lives on the device, not the batch.

Drafts

The wizard saves progress at every step. A half-built batch lives as a draft on /market/batches and resumes exactly where it was left, even three days later. No more “I started this batch yesterday, where did it go.”