What is online auction?

Thoroughbred horses, where yearling horses and other bloodstock are auctioned.[58]

In legal contexts where forced auctions occur, as when one's farm or house is sold at auction on the courthouse steps

(Property seized for non-payment of property taxes, or under foreclosure, is sold in this manner.)

Travel tickets. One example is SJ AB in Sweden auctioning surplus at Tradera (Swedish eBay).

Holidays. A variety of holidays are available for sale online particularly via eBay. Vacation rentals appear to be most

common. Many holiday auction websites have launched but failed.[59]

Self storage units. In certain jurisdictions, if a storage facility's tenant fails to pay his/her rent, the contents of his/her

locker(s) may be sold at a public auction. Several television shows focus on such auctions, including Storage Wars and

Auction Hunters.

Although less publicly visible, the most economically important auctions are the commodities auctions in which the bidders are

businesses even up to corporation level. Examples of this type of auction include:

Sales of businesses

Spectrum auctions, in which companies purchase licenses to use portions of the electromagnetic spectrum for

communications (e.g., mobile phone networks)

Private electronic markets using combinatorial auction techniques to continuously sell commodities (coal, iron ore, grain,

water...) to a pre-qualified group of buyers (based on price and non-price factors)

Timber auctions, in which companies purchase licenses to log on government land

Timber allocation auctions, in which companies purchase timber directly from the government Forest Auctions

Electricity auctions, in which large-scale generators and consumers of electricity bid on generating contracts

Environmental auctions, in which companies bid for licenses to avoid being required to decrease their environmental impact. These include auctions in emissions

trading schemes.

Debt auctions, in which governments sell debt instruments, such as bonds, to investors. The auction is usually sealed and the uniform price paid by the investors is

typically the best non-winning bid. In most cases, investors can also place so called non-competitive bids, which indicates an interest to purchase the debt

instrument at the resulting price, whatever it may be

Auto auctions, in which car dealers purchase used vehicles to retail to the public.