Auctions

Auction: a public sale in which goods or property are sold to the highest bidder, in other words, to the person or organization who offers the most money. By the way, we often use the phrasal verb “auction off” to describe the action, as in: they auctioned off the painting to the highest bidder. Bid: The action of making an offer at an auction. You make a bid at an auction when you make an offer to buy. Lot: An individual object or group of objects offered for sale at auction as a single unit. Hammer Price: the winning bid for a lot at auction. In other words, the price of the sale. Buyers’ Premium: auction houses charge buyers an additional fee which is calculated as a percentage of the hammer price. It’s how they make their money. Forward auction: a situation where a single seller offers an item for sale, and bidders compete to buy at the highest price possible. Reverse auction: a situation where buyers give their suppliers the chance to competitively offer their goods and services at the lowest price possible.   You have possibly seen auctions on television or in the movies. The auctioneer standing in front of a crowd, sometimes speaking very, very quickly, and the bidders raising their hands or maybe lifting a small sign to show that they are making an offer. That is one of many kinds of an auction, and the style or format of auction varies a lot depending on where it is held, and what is being sold, but no matter whether you are selling livestock, real estate, cars, or artwork, the principle at work is the same, and auctions can be a very exciting contest to see which bidder wins! But auctions are much more than that traditional idea of the auctioneer standing in front of a bidder, saying “going, going, gone” as they strike the table with a wooden hammer, signifying that the item, which is known as a “lot”, is sold at a final price––known as the hammer price. The world of auctions is evolving along with technological advances. Auctions now are now carried out online on platforms like E-Bay, or over the telephone, or even through a system of bids enclosed in envelopes.

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