Different Auctions and Sealed Bids

Amongst the many types of auction from the most usual sort sometimes known as English which is used in auction houses up and down the country in the U.K. and the less used Dutch auction there are sealed bid auctions and penny, as well as a dozen others.

One of the old ways ship brokers would decide a sale was by a method that involved the use of a candle. As the candle burned down on a table in front of them they would put money in front of themselves. The second the candle light went out the one with most money on the table got the ship.

There are several versions of this type of last second bidding and all of them are nerve racking and not for the faint hearted.

The sealed bid method is for some reason the one preferred still to this day by much government tendering and is probably just as efficient at getting the right price as any other sort of auction. It always nags at the back of the mind after you put the sealed bid in that you might lose the deal for the sake of another few pounds.

On the other hand there is nothing more annoying than winning a tender bid and then finding out you could have offered half the amount and still got the contract. This is why there is no way of knowing which is the best way to auction any property it’s just a matter of choice.

It would be an interesting exercise to sell four absolutely identical objects using four separate methods. One could be through a well-advertised campaign from a reputable auction house using the conventional method of interested parties being present and another could be through one of the internet auction sites.

The other two methods would be by sealed bids again with interested parties and the final method would be a Dutch auction. At a guess it is probable that all would achieve a similar price but it would still be nice to know for sure.

The internet auction sites are varied in method and terms and conditions should always be read like those at http://www.bidvid.com/

 

Auctions and Sealed Bids

Auctions are the simplest way of selling and in some ways it is a wonder there is not a lot more of it to keep stocks flowing out of salerooms.

Everything imaginable can and has been sold through auctions from people as slaves in days gone by to property, land, cars and household objects. Works of art are regularly sold at auction for the simple reason that this is how they reach the highest levels.

Sealed bids is just one other variation on an auction and this form of selling can be even more nerve racking to the seller.

About fifteen years ago I was invited to put in a sealed bid for a computer at a government establishment. This was no ordinary computer and there were at that time only three others of them in the country. This super computer as it was termed, was only four years old and had already become redundant and replaced by a newer version.

It had cost four hundred and forty four million pounds. An astonishing amount of money in those days and my sealed bid was for exactly one millionth of that amount at four hundred and forty pounds.

Five bids were received and on the appointed day and hour the chief accountant and the computer manager sat down and opened the envelopes one by one. The first one opened was mine and both men fell about laughing when they saw how little the offer was and at that point thought I was just being funny.

They threw it in the bin and proceeded to open the next envelope. This next offer was exactly zero and the other three had a minus figure.

My bid was retrieved from the bin and I got the job. The reason the price was so low was that the computer had to be scrapped and taking it away was going to cost an awful lot of money in man hours and transport.

Every town has auction sites where the usual household stuff is bought and sold on a regular basis but there are other online auctions and that includes ones known as penny types of auction.

Please check out auction sites at http://www.bidvid.com/ for further information.

 

Going, Going, Gone

One of the easiest and quickest ways to sell anything from a small item to property and land is by auction. As the vendor the risks are small as long as certain precautions are taken and there is a full understanding of any costs such as auctioneers Commission and whether value added tax is involved.

At a standard provincial auction house there are occasional pit falls to be aware of. Recently a friend fell afoul of something called an auction ring and although this is rare it is also strictly illegal and is one of the few occasions when a sold lot can be claimed back.

In an auction ring a group of bidders agree not to bid against each other for a particular item but to just let one of their numbers to be successful at a low price.

For instance, there may be a dealer who notices that the vase tucked away at the back and relegated to general ceramics is in fact a rareChinese piece worth twenty thousand pounds. He will have noticed at the pre-sale viewing other experts in this field and realised he is not going to get the item at a snip with competition around.

Most of these dealers all know one another so at this point they will meet over a drink and decide who is going to win the bid.

Assuming there is no serious other bidders around the vase might be bought for fifty pounds or so. The next stage of the racket is for the vase to then be put into another specialised large auction house where the true value is published and well-advertised. The vase may then go for its true value of twenty thousand pounds and the dealers divide the profit equally.

This practice is strictly illegal and cannot of course work with internet auctions. Auction sites on the internet in that respect are safer but that does not mean one should not be cautious and research fully the type of auction you are entering and fully understanding all the small print.

There are other types of auction sites like the one at http://www.bidvid.com/