Dutch Auction

• Sellers start by listing a minimum price, or starting bid for one item, and the number of items for sale.
• Bidders specify both a bid price and the quantity they want to buy.
• All winning bidders pay the same price per item—which is the lowest successful bid. This might be less than what you bid!
• If there are more buyers than items, the earliest successful bids get the goods.
• Higher bidders are more likely to get the quantities they've asked for.
• Proxy bidding is not used in Dutch Auctions.
• Bidders can refuse partial quantities. For example, if you place a bid for 10 items and only 8 are available after the auction, you don't have to buy any of them.
• The only exception to the requirement that all items be identical relates to trading card listings. Lots of trading cards need not be identical due to the nature of these sales in the trading card arena.

Here are some examples of how Dutch Auctions work:

• A seller has 10 pens for auction at $1 each. 10 people bid $1 for one pen each. In this case, all 10 bidders will win a pen for $1.

• Let's say that 5 people bid $1.25 for one pen each and 10 others bid $1. The minimum bid for the pen will be raised to $1.25 because demand exceeds supply. Because the $1.25 bidders bid higher than the $1 bidders, they will be guaranteed a pen. The other 5 pens will go to the earliest $1 bidders. The final price for each pen will be $1 (even though someone placed a high bid of $1.25) since all winning bidders pay the same price — which is the lowest successful bid.

It might sound complicated, but the majority of Dutch Auctions are simple: Most users win the items they bid on at the minimum asking price. However, there are some special instances you might want to know about:

If you are the lowest bidder in a Dutch Auction and you specify a multiple quantity, you may not get to purchase all that you specify. Why? Because there may be little left over after the high bidders get their share.

In other words, if the lowest bidder requests a quantity of 3 pens, she may only get one since the first 9 pens have already been allotted to the higher bidders. The only way to avoid this problem is to make sure you are not the lowest bidder!

In Dutch Auctions (Multiple Item Auctions), successful high bids are displayed when you click on the 'High bidders' link. The complete bidding history (including any unsuccessful bids) is displayed when you click on the 'Bid history' link.