How many kinds of auction sites are there?

There are basically two kinds of online auctions; business-to-person and person-to-person.

Business To Person

Online business to person auctions are generally set-up by auction companies. In recent years, many auction companies have set up online selling platforms through which they call sell their items to a large number of individuals. From an auction house’s perspective, online auctions are cheaper to set up and don’t require as much administrative and organisational time. Auction companies also use their online platforms to stream live auctions and give individuals who can’t attend the auction in person the opportunity to participate and bid on items in real time. The key thing with business to person sites is that the items that are sold online are owned by the site – the auction house – and sold directly to bidders.

Person To Person

Person to person auctions are very different; they usually involve a third party site, on which numerous items are advertised by an array of different to sellers. An infamous third party auction site is Ebay, through which individuals can sell their items to other Ebay users. With third party auctions, the items you are sold aren’t owned by the owners of the site themselves, but by the various sellers who log-in to the site and use it as a platform to sell their items. Across the world you can find auctions in Belfast all the way to Japan.

How Can I Take Part?

Before you can place a bid in any kind of online auction, you have to sign up. To do this, you’ll need a valid email address, and you’ll probably also be expected to register your credit card details (you won’t usually be charged anything at this point, though, unless a registration fee is demanded by the site). Once you’ve registered with the site, you’ll be free to log in and bid on an items for sale. If the site is a third-party auction site, you’ll also be able to upload photographs of your own items and arrange for them to be presented in an online auction.

How Does The Bidding Work?

Most online auction sites follow the same bidding process as the majority of real-time auctions; the winner of the auction is the highest bidder and the price to be paid is the highest bid. If it’s a real time online auction, the bidding schedule will follow the same pattern as a typical real-time auction; the bidding will end when no more bidders are willing to bid. With the majority of online auctions, though, an end-time for the auction is specified before the auction commences, and the highest bid entered at this point is recognised as the winning bid. Online auctions may span anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days. Registered users (the seller and the bidders) will be regularly notified of the auction’s progress and the status of their bids.

Other Things To Be Aware Of

As with real auctions, you may be charged additional fees, such as a registration fee, a buyer’s premium (a kind of tax imposed on the bidder and added to the highest bid) or a deposit. Some of these fees (such as the buyer’s premium) may only be charged after you have won an item, so it’s worth making sure you’ve read all of the Terms and Conditions and you know of all the hidden charges before you start to bid.