Auction Watchlist & Alerts: Track Without Bidding

Bidders don’t want to bid early. Bidding early signals interest, drives the price up, and gives the seller leverage. The watchlist is the alternative: track the lot, decide late, jump in when the conditions are right.

What can be watched

Any lot — live, scheduled, or upcoming — can be watchlisted from the lot detail page. The watchlist count on the lot is denormalized so the seller sees attention without seeing identities. Watchlisters remain anonymous to the seller; only when they bid do they appear.

Alerts

Configurable per watchlist entry: outbid (only relevant if the user has bid; not applicable for pure watchers), reserve-met (when the bidding crosses the reserve floor), final-window (anti-sniping window opens), price-target (the user sets a price; ping when bidding reaches it), ending-soon reminders at 24 hours and 1 hour before close (for the bidders who set an alarm and the ones who didn’t), new-bid pings when somebody else bids on a watched lot, and auction-end (settlement cron fires).

Delivery

In-app bell, email digest, or realtime toast — same options as the rest of the notification system. The realtime toast is the one most bidders use during active auctions, because it lets them keep working another tab and react when something matters.

Watchlist on /auction/upcoming

The upcoming page surfaces lots scheduled to open soon, with a one-click watchlist button. Useful for buyers who want to be ready when a lot opens — the alert fires at lot-open and they can show up at the start of the auction instead of catching the tail end.