What Is An Auction?

Have you ever wondered what exactly is up with auctions? Want a simple explanation? This informative report provides the most basic - simple to understand - information available on auctions.

If you don't have accurate details regarding auctions, then you might make a bad choice when bidding in one. Don't let that happen to you: keep reading.


The most basic explanation is an auction is the process of buying and selling items by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder. Auctions are also used for determining the value of an item.

Auctions can be setup with/without reserve or minimum, or as abolute.

Reserve auctions generally have a minimum bid or reserve price. If the bidding does not reach the minimum, there is no sale. Although the seller may still owe the auctioneer their fee.

In absolute or no reserve auctions, the sale is guaranteed, with only the price left to be determined. In the context of auctions, a bid is an offered price.

Almost anything can be sold at an auction. Some typical items sold at auctions are:

Antiques - The antique business, where besides being an opportunity for trade they also serve as social occasions and entertainment in the sale of collectibles such as stamps, coins, classic cars and fine art.

Luxury Real Estate - Luxury real estate sale includes all types of real property such as residential and commercial real estate, farms, vacant lots and land.

Other items sold at auctions include:



* Spectrum, where companies purchase licenses to use portions of the electromagnetic spectrum for communications (ie. for cell phone networks).

* Timber, where companies purchase licenses to log on government land.

* Electricity, where large-scale generators and consumers of electricity bid on generating contracts.

* Environmental, where companies bid for licenses to avoid being required to decrease their environmental impact.

* Debt auctions, in which governments sell debt instruments, such as bonds, to investors. This type of auction is usually sealed and the uniform price paid by the investors is typically the best non-winning bid.

Lets not forget about police auctions, insurance auctions and used car auctions which are very popular. Internet auctions are also hot. The world's largest auction site is eBay. eBay is the source of millions of dollars worth of profits made from todays most popular auction.


There's a lot to understand about auctions. We were able to provide you with some basic facts above, but there is still plenty more to learn about auctions.

By: Heather Colman

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This article is Copyright 2006, Heather Colman. Permission is granted to reprint this article as long as no changes are made, and this entire resource box is included. Find more auction resources at autoauctionscentral.info