What is the soft close, and why did a lot's closing time move?

The soft close stops a last-second bid from ending an auction before anyone can answer it. Each lot has a Soft Close Window and an Extend By value, both in minutes, and both set before bidding opens. When a bid lands inside the last window's worth of minutes, the close moves to that moment plus the Extend By value. That can happen more than once; bidding ends when a full window passes with no new bid.

Every extension is recorded on the lot and appears in the bid history, and the lot page tells bidders that a late bid extends the close. The scheduled closing time you set never changes; what moves is the effective close. Set the Soft Close Window to 0 to turn the soft close off for a lot.

Closing is handled on the server, on a schedule, whether or not anyone is looking at the page. A bid that arrives after the close is refused, and a bid that arrives in the same instant as the close either extends it or is refused, never both.