The Functioning and Benefits of Free Auction Sites

Auctions today are no longer the exciting events of the past where people crammed into halls and bid feverishly for items. The Covid-19 pandemic is largely responsible for the present state of affairs where lockdowns and social distancing norms have forced fundraisers and auction organizers to take the online route. Further, with most daily activities today going online, auctions too were bound to follow sometime down the line. Given this scenario, fundraisers are mostly held now on free auction sites.

Functioning of free auction sites

To understand the functioning of free auction sites, a comparison between traditional auctions and online ones is necessary. In the past, the items for sale had to be physically transported to the venue to be displayed on tables. The participants would be in the hired hall along with the auctioneer and bid for the goods. The winner would make the payment and take away the item.

Online events are held on free auction sites where no physical interaction is necessary and fully-managed services are available to fundraisers. From registration of the likely participants to conducting the bidding, to declaring the winners, everything is taken care of. Additionally, only the photos of the items are displayed on the websites that use specialized software to conduct the proceedings. Hence, this leads to substantial savings as venues and auctioneers do not have to be hired, nor do goods have to be physically carted anywhere.

The point now is how free are the free auction sites? The auction websites do not charge anything from the fundraisers for holding the auction and providing the services but third-party fees like those charged by payment gateways have to be paid in full. Some sites though charge administrative fees but these are nominal and almost negligible.

Another question that is food for thought is how do these free auction sites sustain themselves? Where do they get the funds to support their infrastructure and run their business? The truth is that since these sites are doing great service to fundraisers in these post-Covid times and helping charitable institutions run their projects through auctions, they are helped by liberal donations from people who want these sites to prosper for the greater good of charity.

Benefits of free auction sites

Free websites have several benefits and all of them favor the organizers.

The most important is that participation in online auctions is not limited by space or geographical borders and anyone from any corner of the globe can take part in the bidding. This leads to fierce competition for any item thereby driving up the prices. It is therefore a winning situation for fundraisers.

Further, bidding is done through any Internet-linked device such as smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Hence, it is very convenient for participants as they do not have to track the auction continuously and are sent notifications when their bids are crossed.