diff --git a/MainWindow.cs b/MainWindow.cs
index 653f710..ab3715c 100755
--- a/MainWindow.cs
+++ b/MainWindow.cs
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ namespace Buypeeb {
 		static SemaphoreSlim taskLimit = new SemaphoreSlim(6);
 		private Queue<string> updateQueue = new Queue<string>();
 		private IEnumerable<YahooAuctionsItem> filterQuery;
+		private IEnumerable<YahooAuctionsItem> outdatedItemQuery;
 
 		private YahooAuctionsItem selectedItem {
 			get {
@@ -115,6 +116,14 @@ namespace Buypeeb {
 				this.filterChecks[name].Active = false;
 			}
 
+			// only returns items that meet all of the following:
+			// - marked as "ready", as in, they aren't in the process of updating
+			// - not updated since the interval
+			this.outdatedItemQuery =
+			from item in this.settings.watchlist.Values.ToList()
+			where item.ready && this.settings.ItemNotUpdatedSinceInterval(item)
+			select item;
+
 			// father forgive me for i have lynned
 			this.filterQuery =
 				from item in this.settings.watchlist.Values.ToList()
@@ -155,6 +164,7 @@ namespace Buypeeb {
 			this.RenderList();
 			this.UpdateItems();
 			GLib.Timeout.Add(1000, new GLib.TimeoutHandler(UpdateSelectionEndTime));
+			GLib.Timeout.Add(10000, new GLib.TimeoutHandler(AutoUpdateItems));
 
 			DeleteEvent += WindowShutdown;
 		}
@@ -674,6 +684,24 @@ namespace Buypeeb {
 			return true;
 		}
 
+		private bool AutoUpdateItems() {
+			if (this.queueActive) {
+				// don't autoupdate if the queue is active
+				return true;
+			}
+
+			foreach (var item in this.outdatedItemQuery) {
+				updateQueue.Enqueue(item.id);
+			}
+
+			if (updateQueue.TryPeek(out string _)) {
+				// there's at least one item in the queue
+				this.ProcessUpdateQueue();
+			}
+
+			return true;
+		}
+
 		// column renderers
 
 		private void RenderColumnFavourite(Gtk.TreeViewColumn column, Gtk.CellRenderer cell, Gtk.ITreeModel model, Gtk.TreeIter iter) {
diff --git a/Settings.cs b/Settings.cs
index ba9933f..def2f87 100644
--- a/Settings.cs
+++ b/Settings.cs
@@ -27,5 +27,29 @@ namespace Buypeeb {
 			this.watchlist[id] = new YahooAuctionsItem(id, name);
 			return this.watchlist[id];
 		}
+
+		// TRUE if the item hasn't been updated for at least interval seconds
+		// for example, if the interval is 10, and the item hasn't been updated since 20 seconds ago, this will be TRUE
+		public bool ItemNotUpdatedSinceInterval(YahooAuctionsItem item) {
+			int seconds = 1000;
+			if (item.favourite) {
+				if (item.endingSoon) {
+					seconds = this.favouriteUpdateIntervalCritical;
+				}
+				else {
+					seconds = this.favouriteUpdateInterval;
+				}
+			}
+			else {
+				if (item.endingSoon) {
+					seconds = this.updateIntervalCritical;
+				}
+				else {
+					seconds = this.updateInterval;
+				}
+			}
+			var later = item.lastUpdated.AddSeconds(seconds);
+			return DateTime.Compare(later, DateTime.UtcNow) < 0;
+		}
 	}
 }
diff --git a/YahooAuctionsItem.cs b/YahooAuctionsItem.cs
index 5fd7031..d0ae293 100644
--- a/YahooAuctionsItem.cs
+++ b/YahooAuctionsItem.cs
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ namespace Buypeeb {
 		public bool endingToday { get { return this.endDate.DayOfYear == DateTime.UtcNow.DayOfYear; } }
 		public bool hasWinPrice { get { return this.winPrice != 0; } }
 		private bool success { get; set; } // TODO: custom setter that throws an exception if set to false or something idk
+		public bool endingSoon { get { return DateTime.Compare(DateTime.UtcNow.AddMinutes(10), this.endDate) > 0; } }
 
 		public YahooAuctionsItem(string id, string name) {
 			this.id = id;