An auction is the process of buying and selling things by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder. In economic theory an auction is a method for determining the value of a commodity that has an undetermined or variable price. In some cases, there is a minimum or reserve price; if the bidding does not reach the minimum, there is no sale (but the person who puts the item up for auction still owes a fee to the auctioneer). In the context of auctions, a bid is an offered price.

Types of auctions

Standard auction: Participants bid openly against one another, with each bid being higher than the previous bid. The auction ends when no participant is willing to bid further, or when a pre-determined "buy-out" price is reached, at which point the highest bidder pays the price. The seller may set a 'reserve' price and if the auctioneer fails to raise a bid higher than this reserve the sale may not go ahead.

Stock Pile!: In the traditional Stock Pile auction the auctioneer begins with a high asking price which is lowered until some participant is willing to accept the auctioneer's price, or a predetermined minimum price is reached. This type of auction is convenient when it is important to auction goods quickly, since a sale never requires more than one bid.

Reverse Auction (e-procurement): In this all bidders simultaneously submit bids in such a way that no bidder knows the bid of any other participant. In this various kinds of models are available like invite only (invited providers only can bid on this), special.

Challenger Auction: The auction will run under the counter bid model. In winner selection process according to the seller chose no. of runner-ups will be choose the highest bid will be sent to them for counter. If any one counters the highest bid then the countered amount once again sent to highest bidder for counter.

Reserve Auction: In this auction for each item a reserve price will be kept, this price is hidden from the user area, a note will be appear that " Reserve Met - Reserve No Met". In this two types of models are available.

1. Full reserved - To select a winner the bid price should higher than the reserve price.

2. Meet - half way, in this if the bid is less than the reserve price, difference amount will be divided by 2 and added to bid price, if the high bidder is ready to accept that meet- half way price he will be selected as winner.