An auction can be scheduled. The listing editor has Schedule start, IST (optional) — set a date and time and the auction opens then rather than immediately.
Once scheduled it shows as Scheduled in your list.
Why schedule an auction
So it ends when people are awake. This is the real reason, and it is underused. An auction that opens at 2pm with a two-hour timer ends at 4pm, when nobody is watching. One that opens so it ends at 9pm ends in front of an audience.
For a timed auction — one not in a show — the ending time is the whole game. Schedule backwards from when you want it to close.
So you can prepare in advance. Build ten listings on a Sunday, scheduled across the week.
So pre-bids can accumulate, where you have enabled them. A scheduled auction gives buyers time to leave a sealed bid before it opens. What a pre-bid is
For a buy-now listing
There is no scheduled go-live. What there is instead:
Save it as a draft and publish it when you want. Save draft, then Publish from Drafts ({n}).
It is a manual step rather than a timer, which is a genuine limitation — but for a buy-now item it matters much less, because there is no ending to time. A listing published on Tuesday afternoon is not worse than one published Tuesday evening.
The draft workflow that works
Drafts are the real scheduling tool for most sellers:
- Build everything as drafts when you have time — photographs, descriptions, prices.
- Publish in batches when you want them live.
- For a show,
Prepare lineupthe day before, so going live is not also an admin job.
Everything from an import lands in drafts for exactly this reason, which is also why an import can never put a mistake on sale. How to import a lot of listings
One thing to know about a scheduled auction
Its settings lock once it goes live or takes a bid — This auction is live, so its settings are locked. So the time to get the start price and the reserve right is before the scheduled moment, not after.
And a scheduled time must be in the future; the form will not accept a past one.
For a show rather than a listing
A show is scheduled properly, with a countdown and an announcement to your followers — which is the main reason to schedule one at all. How to schedule a show
More: how to create a listing, how to edit or relist an item, how to price for auction.