Auction

Part of a series on
Auctions
Types
All-pay Chinese Amsterdam Anglo-Dutch Barter double Best/not best Brazilian Calcutta Candle Click-box bidding Combinatorial Common value Deferred-acceptance Discriminatory price Double Dutch English Forward French Generalized first-price Generalized second-price Japanese Knapsack Multi-attribute Multiunit No-reserve Rank Reverse Scottish Sealed first-price Simultaneous ascending Single-price Traffic light Uniform price Unique bid Value of revenues Vickrey Vickrey–Clarke–Groves Walrasian Yankee
Bidding
Shading Calor licitantis Cancellation hunt Jump Rigging Sniping Suicide Tacit collusion
Contexts
Algorithms Autos Art Charity Children Players Domain names Flowers Loans Scam Slaves Spectrum Stamps Virginity Wine Wives
Theory
Digital goods Price of anarchy Revenue equivalence Winner's curse
Online
Ebidding Private electronic market Software
v t e

An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition exist and are described in the section about different types. The branch of economic theory dealing with auction types and participants' behavior in auctions is called auction theory.

The open ascending price auction is arguably the most common form of auction and has been used throughout history.^[1] Participants bid openly against one another, with each subsequent bid being higher than the previous bid.^[2] An auctioneer may announce prices, while bidders submit bids vocally or electronically.^[2]

Auctions are applied for trade in diverse contexts. These contexts include antiques, paintings, rare collectibles, expensive wines, commodities, livestock, radio spectrum, used cars, real estate, online advertising, vacation packages, emission trading, and many more.