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# Your auction ended: what happens next

When your auction closes with a winning bid, the winner has 72 hours to pay through Creatures. Don't hand over the animal until they pay. If the reserve wasn't met or nobody bid, the animal isn't sold, and you can relist it.

## If your auction sold

Creatures sends you a notice with the high bid and the payment deadline. It also reminds you not to ship or release the animal yet.

Open the auction from that notice. Its page shows **Congrats! Your auction ended successfully.** and **Waiting for payment confirmation from the buyer.**

![Auction ended with a $2,150 winning bid, waiting for the buyer to pay](https://cdn-test.creatures.com/045/c5c/141/1b631.png?width=764)

To talk with the winner, select **Message buyer**. If you have already chatted, the button says **View conversation**.

Until the winner pays, the auction shows in **Dashboard** > **Selling** > **Sales** under **Waiting on buyer**. It's marked **Awaiting payment**, with the date the winner must pay by. It isn't listed in **Active Auctions**.

## When the winner pays

You get a notice that you sold the animal. In **Sales**, the auction now works like any other sale. Plan the handoff with the buyer. After the handoff is confirmed, the money goes to your Creatures Wallet. See [How seller payout works](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/how-seller-payout-works-bhajzr/) and [What happens after I sell an animal?](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/what-happens-after-i-sell-an-animal-rm68h2/).

## If the winner doesn't pay in 72 hours

The sale is cancelled. You get a notice that the buyer did not pay in time, and the winner is told too. The auction page then shows **Auction Cancelled** with a **Relist** button.

## If the reserve wasn't met or nobody bid

The reserve is the lowest price you said you'd accept. If bidding stopped below it, the page shows **Reserve Not Met** with the last bid. If nobody bid, the page shows **Received No Bids**.

Either way, you get a notice, and the animal isn't sold. Each bidder had a temporary hold on their card while they bid. Those holds are released, so no bidder is charged.

![Auction ended with Reserve Not Met and a Relist button](https://cdn-test.creatures.com/194/7d9/d39/20880.png?width=764)

## Relist the animal

1. Open the ended auction and select **Relist**.
2. A new listing form opens with the old photos, description and prices filled in.
3. Change what you need, such as a lower starting bid or reserve, and finish the listing as usual.

If you already listed the animal again, the page shows **View Active Listing** instead of **Relist**. To sell at a set price instead, open the arrow menu on the animal's profile and choose **Fixed price**.

## If a buyer used Buy Now

A buyer can use **Buy Now** only before the first bid. When they do, the auction ends right away and they pay at checkout, so there is no 72-hour wait. The sale goes straight to **Sales**. If they don't finish paying, the auction reopens within 10 minutes.

### Related information

- [Listing an animal for auction](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/listing-an-animal-for-auction-1hr0chk/)
- [Editing or ending your listing](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/editing-or-ending-your-listing-t5u1x8/)
- [How seller payout works](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/how-seller-payout-works-bhajzr/)
- [I won an auction: what happens next](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/i-won-an-auction-what-happens-next-dci1x6/)