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What is a dutch auction?

A dutch auction is a method for a seller to sell many identical items to several buyers at various prices while only listing the lot once.

It works like this:

A seller has 20 pencils to sell that she is willing to sell to up to 20 different buyers. She posts an auction at WC. Each lot consists of only 1 pencil but there are 20 individual lots (versus a single lot of 20 pencils). Lets say she sets the opening bid at $.75.

A bidder goes to the lot page and decides to bid on some pencils. The bidder bids for 5 pencils at $.75 ea. If the bidder wins they will owe $3.75 for 5 pencils. A second bidder comes in and bids $.75 for the remaining 15 pencils. Now all 20 pencils have been bid on.

A third bidder comes and wants 17 pencils. They must beat the $.75 bid. So they bid $1 for 17 pencils. The bids looks like this:

Bidder #3 17 pencils @1 WIN
Biider #2 3 pencils @.75 WIN but, 12 pencils @.75 LOSE
Bidder #1 5 pencils @.75 LOSE

Bidders who bid on more items take precedence. If bidder #1 wants to win 5 pencils they will have to bid more than $1. Lets say bidder #1 bids $1.25 for 5 pencils, now the bids look like this:

Bidder 1 5 pencils @1.25 WIN
Bidder 2 15 pencils @1 WIN but 2 pencils @1 LOSE
Bidder 3 15 pencils @.75 LOSE

Thats basically how it works.

Note: if you have a bid on a dutch auction and would like to bid on a higher quantity of items in that item, place your whole bid over again. For example, if there are 3 bottles available, and you have a bid on 1 but would like to also bid on the other 2, place your bid again for all 3 bottles, not just the 2.

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