Auction Formats and Lots: How a Lot Becomes a Live Auction
English ascending auctions, verified lots from Core, reserve rules, increments, and the timer logic that decides who wins.
An auction lot is a batch projected from Core with auction-specific metadata: starting price, reserve, increment rules, duration, and the format. The lot is what bidders actually bid on; the underlying assets are what they receive when they win.
The format that ships in v1
English ascending: open bids, everyone sees the current price, the highest bid at the timer expiry wins. Anti-sniping extends the timer when a bid lands in the final five minutes, so a last-second steal doesn’t rob the seller of competing bidders’ time-to-respond. Suitable for 80% of ITAD lots — high-demand goods where competitive pressure does the price discovery.
Other auction formats
Dutch Clock, Sealed Bid, and Japanese Clock each fit a different selling strategy. Dutch Clock suits warehouse clearance, Sealed Bid suits confidential decommissions, and Japanese Clock exposes demand depth through stay-or-leave rounds. Keep the format choice tied to the commercial intent of the lot.
Increments and reserve
Platform increment rules (/admin/auction/rules) define the minimum bid step at each price band: small steps below €5,000, larger steps above. Reserve is the seller-set floor: if the highest bid doesn’t hit reserve, the lot doesn’t sell. The buyer sees "reserve met / not met" but not the reserve number itself — visible-reserve auctions exist but are not the default.
Verified lots from Core
You can’t auction a pallet that doesn’t exist — the platform won’t let you create a lot without sourcing it from Core inventory that passes the sellable-quality gate. The lot detail (/auction/lots/[id]) shows the underlying assets with their grades, photos, erasure certs. Bidders see exactly what they’re bidding on, which is the entire point of the platform.
Lot lifecycle
Created (draft) → Scheduled (start time set, awaiting open) → Live (bidding active) → Final-Five (anti-sniping window) → Closed (timer expired) → Settled (winner determined, escrow opened, inventory transferred). Each transition writes an audit row. The completion page (/auction/[id]/completion) shows the final state with the winning bid, the runner-up, the settlement reference.