private treaty bids work like normal auctions minus the auctioneer. you will basically start at the opening bid or "floor" price. if you are not the first bid, the seller will tell you where you need to bid in order to be an active paricipant in the auction. At the end of the sale (close) the sellers will contact all parties that have bid on that animal, starting with the 1st bidder, they will then contact all bidders and ask them to increase their bid until only 1 person is left as the new owner. The process can often take several days to complete, but it does allow people to come, view and bid over an extended time period. most sales will run in $100 increments up to a set price ($2500 in most cases) and then go by $250 from there on out.