Er. Pritpal Singh Doad asked:


Remember the good old fashioned auction where you rocked up and could crawl all over the goods, picking and pocking at it to see whether there was something wrong with it?

I remember when people where reluctant to buy things from auction for the fear of buying someone else’s problems even when they could inspect it before auction including the fact that most reputable auction houses even did some kind of pre inspection on goods and let you know there was something wrong with it.

And now. Now you can go to online auction centers and buy anything you can think of from just about any part of the world. How times change.

Well…. what changed?

Was it the convenience of easily being able to locate goods?

Or the fact you didn’t have to wait for auction day as there are auctions taking place every minute of the day. For more details visit to www.auction-words.com. Or the rise and rise of the internet as a shopping tool.

Or brand name marketing that gained consumer trust and the mass marketing of its services namely ebay.

I believe it’s a combination of all those factors and the fact that consumers themselves can also make money online via online auctions further promoting its use.

In a recent press release from ebay “Entrepreneurs in record numbers are setting up shop on eBay, according to a new survey conducted for eBay by ACNielsen International Research, a leading research firm. More than 724,000 Americans report that eBay is their primary or secondary source of income. In addition to these professional eBay sellers, another 1.5 million individuals say they supplement their income by selling on eBay, according to the July 2005 survey.

In the first six months of 2005, eBay members in the U.S. sold merchandise worth approximately $10.6 billion.”

In the automotive market major manufacturers are making great use of online systems to sell ex lease vehicles saving them transportation costs, reconditioning fees and auction fees. For more details visit to www.auction-professional.com. Some manufacturers are now selling up to 40% of these vehicles via online auction. For purchasers it is a relief to not have to travel to an auction and spend a day standing around a warehouse to get the vehicles they need.

www.auction-entrepreneur-kit.com

www.auction-extreme-package.com

How times change and there appears to be no restrictions to what can be sold online as anything from machinery to a dolls dress can be found for sale. Looking around traditional auction centers they all have some kind of online auction system in place as well as there traditional style.

So how long will it be before they all move to online and the traditional style of auction is dead? I can see the freight business picking up!

 

Kris Nickerson asked:


Where can you buy a 42″ LG Plasma TV for $5.57? Or a PlayStation 3 for $1.68? At SilverTag (www.SilverTag.com), a new online auction site where winners are determined not by the highest bid, but by the lowest unique bid placed on a given item.

“I can’t believe it!” exclaimed Rosanne Bryant of Oklahoma City, Okla., upon hearing the news that her low bid of just $1.68 was good enough to win the PlayStation 3 auctioned on SilverTag.com in mid-December.

Bryant is just one of many who are bidding on and winning big-ticket merchandise at SilverTag Auctions. Other winners include Guy F., who paid just 40 Cents for an iPod Nano Red, Keturah H., who paid just 15 cents for a $100 Sephora Gift Card, and Jim R, who paid just $5.57 for a 42″ LG Plasma TV. At SilverTag, winners are determined not by the highest bid, but by the lowest unique bid placed on a given item.

Members of SilverTag, which launched on December 1, 2006, are calling it “the most addictive auction site in the world.” Upon winning the $100 Target Gift Card for 15 cents, Brian L., a SilverTag member from Castle Rock, Colo., exclaimed, “SilverTag is for real and it is totally amazing and fun! It’s a whole new way to enjoy auctions. I’ll be buying some new CDs and gifts for friends!”

The overwhelmingly positive reception to the Texas-based SilverTag thrills President and CEO Robert Jones. “I always envied the radio deejay who was able to tell caller number 14 that she had just won a car or $500. Now I get to do it everyday! I love calling the winners and hearing the excitement in their voices.”

SilverTag members aren’t the only ones who reap rewards from the site’s online auctions. “Each month, members nominate and we select two charities, which receive 100 percent of the auction proceeds,” notes Jones. “During the first month, the Susan G. Komen ****** Cancer Foundation and LiveStrong, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, will receive a minimum of $1,000 each.”

What makes SilverTag unique is that, instead of the highest bidder winning the item, as is the case with eBay, a SilverTag winner is the one with the lowest unique bid. Simply put, when the auction ends, the bidder that places the lowest bid that no one else has placed wins the auction and can purchase the item for the price of their low bid.

SilverTag is a membership site where users have the opportunity to bid 20 times each day on any listed item. “It’s free for the first three days, and then is only $9.95 per month for 20 bids a day,” says Jones. “That’s 600 bids and a lot of fun for less than ten bucks.”

Placing bids is easy and fun. It takes two seconds, and the automated SilverTag Auction Manager lets the bidder know immediately whether or not her bid is unique. “Members are having a blast with bidding frenzies,” says Jones. “As the value of the items up for auction increases, they’re going to have even more fun.”

Jones promises that, as the site gains momentum, the retail price of the auction items will also increase. “We plan to auction a car in January and give away a house next summer,” he says. And, as is always the case with SilverTag online auctions, the lowest unique bid will take the prize.