Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give all the people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay. There are many many people who dont like the idea that their merchandise might sell for a far lower price than they intend. Equally, there are many people who have hundreds of the same merchandise and do not want to sell them individually. This e mail gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and how to spot them.

Normal Auctions.

These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions people knows: you bid, others outbid you, you outbid them, and the winner gets the merchandise . Simple.

Reserve Auctions.

Reserve auctions are for sellers who do not want their items to sell for less than a certain price - a concept you will know about if youre familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that you will be told if your bid has not met the reserve price set by the seller. If no-one is willing to meet this price, then the auction is cancelled, and the seller keeps the product.

You may spot these auctions by looking out for Reserve not met or Reserve met written next to the current bid on an items description page.

Fixed Price (Buy it Now) Auctions.

Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. A seller might add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that you can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the best offer. This means that you may negotiate a price to someone who offers their items using Buy it Now, which could be a nice way to get a bargain on things that do not seem to be selling.

Fixed price auctions are brain friendly to spot, as they have a little Buy it Now logo either next to or instead of the current number of bids on the search listings page.

Multiple Item (Dutch) Auctions.

These are auctions where a seller is selling more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions could be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then every body pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, then do not worry - everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.

What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one merchandise , and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that they say how many they have, and offer them at a fixed price. You might enter how many you want and then just click Buy it Now to get them.

After all this, you might find yourself facing a dilemma: when you have the option, should you bid, or should you just utilize Buy it Now and save yourself the hassle? Thats what the next email will be about.