The way it has been recently is a little more relaxed. Shops are still cleared on Monday mornings, and whoever is doing them prioritizes the current owner. If by the time the shop is cleared and there is no renewal application, the shop may go to the oldest application for it.

Bare in mind, clears can still happen at 12:01am EST, but they rarely ever do.

The order of things being done are the shop clears (they're cleared if no renewal for the shop at time of clear), and then going through oldest to newest of applications.

Hope this helps! :)

EDIT: And of course, this does not mean people can aimlessly post applications for the same station... Basically saying, if someone else has an app in already for the shop you're looking for, it's not recommended to list it on your application.

 

I also happened to completely misread AND misinform how it's actually done. Guess that's what I get for not feeling too well. :p

Yes, the time of posting does matter. We don't accept apps for new trade shops to take someone's unless posted after the "deadline of renewal" which happens to be 12:01am EST.

However if clears are being done and there's a renewal at the time of clears, the renewal is given priority.

Edit: Also note that the renewal is only priority if it comes before someone applies for your shop.

 

They have been.

 

I personally have applied for a spawn shop (@goblizz station1 a few months ago) a few hours before expiry. I left this application open and made it clear that it expires in a few hours. Goblizz didn't apply for the station and my application was accepted a few hours after the expiry date even though I applied earlier.

I didn't think it'd get accepted, but it did.