Bidders Common Auctions Highest Price Bid Bidding Types

The most common types of auctions in the United States are "English auctions," where bidders can see who the other bidders are, and they start with a low price, "working up" (increasing the amount of the bids) until only one person is willing to pay the highest price for the item.

The opposite of an English auction is a "Dutch auction," where the auctioneer begins with a very high price and "gradually" (slowly) lowers it until someone is willing to buy the item.

In a "sealed-bid" auction, each bid is "presented" (submitted) in a "sealed" (closed with glue so that other bidders cannot see it) envelope and the item is sold to the highest bidder. In a sealed-bid auction, each bidder can present only one bid.

"Silent auctions" are very common for "charity events" or "fundraisers," which are auctions that are designed to "raise" (gather) money for important "causes" (efforts to change society in some way), such as feeding the poor or saving "endangered species" (types of animals of which few are still living). In a chartable silent auction, people or businesses "donate" (give something without receiving money) goods and services and those items (or descriptions of them) are placed on a table with "sheets" (pieces) of paper where bidders can write down their bidding number and the price they are willing to pay. Bidders can return to that table and "revise" (change; edit) their bid if they see that other people are bidding "higher" (in a larger amount) than they are. At a specified time, the bidding is closed and the highest bid on each piece of paper is the winner.