
So if you place a very high preorder, you are more likely to win it. That notification signals the start of the random timer - the item will appear on the market for bid within 5-15 minutes, and you need to sit there and refresh over and over to catch it as soon as it appears. Anyone who had a notification is notified immediately that the item has been listed.


If it decides that the sale will go up for bid, it waits a random amount of time between 5-15 minutes before it actually becomes visible on the market. If it decides that the sale is a pre-order, it will never reach the bidding step on the market (most people won't even know if got listed). When an item is listed on the market, the game determines randomly whether it will be sold as a pre-order or if it will go up for bid. As I understand it (which may be inaccurate):
