Auctions & Bidding

No. Every bid and the closing of an auction run inside a database lock on that auction. Bids that arrive at the same moment are processed one after the other, each against the state the previous one left, and the closer can never run in the middle of a bid. A bid that waited for the lock past the end time is refused.

No. The cart line only refers to the win; the price, the quantity (1) and the owner are checked on the server on every cart calculation. Quantity or price changes are reset, markers sent by the browser are ignored, and a win can be ordered once.

The customer enters the most they are willing to pay. The store bids for them one increment at a time, only as much as needed to keep them in the lead. The winner pays one increment above the second-highest maximum (or the reserve), never their full maximum unless needed. Nobody else sees the maximum.

A bid placed in the last minutes of an auction moves the end a few minutes later, so other bidders can answer. You set the window, the extension and the maximum number of extensions.

The auction ends without a winner. You can relist it manually, or let the add-on relist unsold auctions automatically.

The win expires after the payment time (48 hours by default). Then the next highest bidder can get a second-chance offer at their maximum bid, or the auction is relisted (setting).

Recommended. Without cron, auctions close when someone views the auction or when an administrator uses the admin panel. Cron closes them on time even when nobody visits.

Auctions are regulated differently in different countries (consumer rights, distance selling, the status of bids). Publish your own auction terms: the add-on shows your bidder terms text next to the bid form and stores each customer's acceptance, but it does not provide legal terms or legal advice.

Yes. The product page and lists print the same markup for every visitor; the current bid and everything personal is loaded on demand. Responsive, Bright, Nova and themes based on them (including the Kavio Labs themes) are supported.

Yes, on Multi-Vendor with Vendors manage auctions on: for their own products only, and they see only their own auctions, bids and winners.

Without a valid license (no key after the 14-day start period, an invalid or revoked key, a domain the license does not cover, or no successful check for 14 days), no new bids or Buy Now purchases are accepted and no new auctions can be created or started (auction pages show that bidding is paused). Auctions still close at their end time, winners can still pay for auctions they have won, and all auctions, bids and exports stay available. Once the license is valid again, everything works again.

Open Add-ons → Manage add-ons → Auctions & Bidding → Settings → License. The status line says what is wrong: no key, a key for another add-on, a revoked license, or a domain that the license does not cover. Fix it and click Check now. See License.

Yes. Subdomains of your licensed domain (for example staging.yourstore.com) and local development hosts (localhost, private IP addresses, .local, .test) are covered by the same license.

No. The check runs in the admin panel or from cron, once a day. The storefront never runs it.