Bidding Types

Auction direction and bidding behavior are separate choices.

Choice	Behavior
Normal	Higher valid bids lead.
Reverse	Lower valid bids lead.
Proxy	The system responds to competing bids using a bidder’s submitted limit.
Sealed	Bids are private; the winner is selected from the submitted bids.

Choose normal or reverse on each auction product. Proxy and sealed bidding are additional controls, rather than separate product types.

Which should I use?

• Use normal bidding for a conventional sale to the highest bidder.
• Use reverse bidding when lower offers should win.
• Enable proxy bidding when customers should enter their limit and let the system respond automatically.
• Enable sealed bidding when competing offers should remain private.

When sealed bidding is enabled, the bidding engine uses its sealed-bid path. Do not describe the resulting auction as an ordinary public proxy auction, even if both options were selected.

See Proxy Bidding and Sealed Bidding for the detailed behavior.