Offer Unsold Auction Items with Encore Sale

Encore Sale gives auction items that received no bids one final opportunity to sell. When bidding closes, eligible items automatically become buy-now-only offers for a short period that you choose.

You can keep each item’s starting bid as its Encore Sale price or apply the same optional percentage discount to all eligible items. The sale can remain open for up to 60 minutes.

How Encore Sale works

Your auction reaches its scheduled Stop Taking Bids time.
BetterUnite identifies active auction items that have no confirmed bids.
Eligible items become buy-now-only offers. Guests can no longer place bids on them.
The buy-now price is based on each item’s starting bid, less your optional Encore Sale discount.
The offers expire automatically when the selected Encore Sale period ends.

Important: Encore Sale requires a scheduled Stop Taking Bids time. It does not start when you manually pause bidding.

Turn on Encore Sale

Open your campaign and select Auction.
Select Setup Auction, then Auction Settings.
Open the Schedule section.
Set the date and time under Stop Taking Bids on.
Turn on Enable Encore Sale.
Select a Sale duration. You can choose 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes.
Optionally enter a percentage under Discount.
Optionally select Show discount to guests if you want the reduced price presented as a discount.
Save your auction settings.

Choose the Encore Sale price

The Encore Sale price is calculated separately for each eligible item.

Setting	Result
No discount	The item’s starting bid becomes its buy-now price.
Discount entered	The percentage is deducted from the item’s starting bid.
Show discount to guests selected	Guests see that the Encore Sale price includes a discount.
Show discount to guests not selected	Guests see the final buy-now price without promotional discount messaging.

For example, an item with a $200 starting bid and a 15% discount is offered for $170 during Encore Sale.

Which items are included

An item is eligible when all of the following are true at the scheduled auction close:

The item is active.
The item accepts bids.
The item has no confirmed bids.
The item has not already been purchased.
The item has a positive starting bid or buy-now price.

Items with confirmed bids are not placed in Encore Sale. If automatic awarding is enabled, those items continue through the normal auto-award process.

What guests experience

During the Encore Sale period, eligible items remain available in the guest auction experience as buy-now offers. Each offer has a quantity of one and is available until it is purchased or the Encore Sale period expires.

Because the sale is activated by a background process, it may begin a few minutes after the scheduled bidding close. Guests still receive the full duration you selected because the countdown begins when Encore Sale is activated.

Monitor the sale

When Encore Sale is enabled, a badge appears near the auction schedule at the top of the Manage Auction page.

Before bidding closes, the badge shows how long Encore Sale will remain open and any configured discount.
After Encore Sale begins, the badge shows its scheduled end date and time.

Change or turn off Encore Sale

You can change the duration or discount, or turn Encore Sale off, before the scheduled bidding close. Save the auction settings after making changes.

If you change the auction’s Stop Taking Bids time before Encore Sale starts, BetterUnite uses the updated time. Changes made after Encore Sale has already started do not restore bidding or recalculate offers that are already active.

Frequently asked questions

Does Encore Sale extend bidding?

No. Bidding closes at the scheduled time. Encore Sale changes eligible no-bid items into fixed-price buy-now offers.

Is Encore Sale the same as Auto Extend Auction?

No. Auto Extend Auction gives an item more bidding time after last-minute bidding activity. Encore Sale applies only after bidding closes and only to eligible items without confirmed bids.

Does Encore Sale interfere with auto-award?

No. Items with confirmed bids remain in the standard award flow. Only eligible items without confirmed bids are converted to Encore Sale offers.

Can more than one guest purchase an Encore Sale item?

No. Each Encore Sale item is offered with a quantity of one. It becomes unavailable after purchase.

What happens when the Encore Sale period ends?

Any remaining Encore Sale offers expire automatically and can no longer be purchased by guests.