The following was originally posted by NoCents
Care of our good friend Counrty, may I present.......
"Country Style" DUTCH AUCTIONS
A Dutch auction is held when a seller has multiples of the same product and wants to sell them to the highest bidders, but doesn't want to use the Fixed Price format.
Dutch Auction: The seller has, for example, 125 Dopey/Grumpy Cookie jars up for auction. All winning bidders will pay the exact same price, no matter what their bid was. The price of the jar will be the lowest bid that is successful or a winning bid. The top 125 bids would be considered successful bids.
Each jar is considered a separate bid. One bidder bids on five jars = five bids.
Two different things can happen:
•125 cookie jar available, starting price is $40. A total of 110 jars have been bid on, with bids ranging from $100. to $40. All bidders will get the jars for $40. each and all bids were successful and winning bids.
•125 cookie jars are available, but there have been 150 bids, ranging from $100. to $40. The top 125 bids are the only ones considered and the lowest of THOSE 125 bids will be the successful bid price.
The easiest way to keep an eye is watch the auction current price, that's the bid for the 125th jar and the price all will pay if the auction ends right then. No one pays more than anyone else, no matter what they bid.
http://collectibles.about.com/library/a ... ydutch.htm
When there are 130 bids on 125 jars, and all the bids are the same, the earliest bids win. The earliest bids win any ties.
The lowest bid on the 125th jar determines the price everyone pays.
With the way most auctions run, I doubt we'll need to sticky this.