Welcome :: What are online auctions?

What are online auctions?

Online auctions are web sites that use software to enable buyers to bid for items or services on the internet and sellers to auction them off. eBay is the world’s most popular online auction web site, and it globally hosts billions of transactions a year.

Think of online auctions like a marketplace -- just on the internet, and bigger than any brick-and-mortar marketplace could ever be. And online auctions offer no time or geographical constraints. You can buy or sell at any time of the day from any place you can access the internet.

Initially, mostly items were sold in online auctions, but some companies are beginning to offer services, such as programming or web design, through the competitive bidding process an auction site affords.

Most online auctions, including eBay, are English auctions. In English auctions, the initial price for an item starts low and rises as different people make bids on the item. However, in a Dutch auction, multiple identical items are offered in the same auction, and all the winning bidders pay the same price.