The Growing Case for Timed Online Sales in Plant & Salvage Auctions

Always-On, Always-Interesting

Timed auctions give auctioneers the ability to list single items or run full multi-lot sales, providing a continuous drumbeat of activity on your website.

This creates a "shop window" effect: there’s always something happening, always something to share with your mailing list or promote on social. This consistency not only helps retain interest but also boosts your search engine visibility over time, improving your SEO footprint and drawing in new bidders who are browsing or searching.

Rather than waiting for your next webcast event, your site becomes a destination for discovery and your brand stays visible, week in, week out.

Flexibility by Design

BidHarvest includes fully integrated webcast capabilities for larger, high-prestige sales and they continue to play an essential role in the auction calendar. Live events remain unmatched in energy, theatre, and relationship-building, and they’re a key part of what makes the auction industry so unique.

Timed auctions don’t replace the live experience, they complement it.

They give you a set of tools that fits different sale types, buyer preferences, and operational needs. A high-margin, low-overhead format that sits alongside webcast and in-person events as part of a modern, flexible plant/salvage/assets auction strategy.

Timed auctions give you options:

• Run auctions more frequently without overloading your team
• Market inventory at pace while managing fewer moving parts
• Reach different bidder segments, especially those who prefer the flexibility and anonymity of a timed format

Our data shows that timed formats appeal particularly to younger bidders or those unfamiliar (or uncomfortable) with traditional live formats, widening your reach without increasing complexity.

Built for Control and Confidence

BidHarvest offers auctioneers granular control over how timed auctions run:

• Subsequent lot extensions - extend the next lot if the current one is active
• Batch finishing - group lots to close together
• All lots end unless active - reduce fatigue on large sales while keeping bidder energy high

These features let you run anything from a single-vehicle disposal to a 5,000 lot salvage sale; all within a framework designed to maintain momentum and manage user experience.

With BidHarvest, the unique timed auction clerking options even allow you to run a timed sale on your own site while simultaneously syncing with third-party aggregator platforms. That means you maintain your presence on external networks without sacrificing control over your brand, your traffic, or your data.

Ideal for High-Volume Inventory Auctions

We’ve seen how well batch finishing works for larger timed sales, allowing groups of 10's or 100's of lots to close together unless active bidding is taking place.

This structure supports bidder attention and creates natural auction "pulses", a great way to run plant, machinery, or parts auctions where buyers browse by category or batch. The active lots then extend as each bid is added, keeping the action going and avoiding any attempts at bid sniping.

It also helps your operations team manage communication, invoicing, and post-sale activity in stages, rather than being hit with everything at once.

A Format That Builds Reach

Timed sales aren’t just efficient, they’re inclusive. For every experienced dealer or vendor, there are casual bidders, new customers, and those who prefer to browse and bid quietly, without the pressure of a live auction room.

When combined with the flexibility of BidHarvest’s auction management tools, timed sales become a powerful way to grow your reach, build your brand, and simplify your operations; all without compromise.

If you haven’t already made timed a permanent part of your auction strategy, now might be the time to look again. Book a discovery calll and demo and see how BidHarvest could help you deliver transformation for your auction business.

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