Auctions allow the public to experience the same type of excitement that is found on the floor of the commodities exchange. After the fervor of the event, sellers know their merchandise sold at prices truly representative of market value, and buyers walk away knowing they paid an amount only one bid higher than what someone else was willing to pay. Everyone wins at an auction.

The auction is not a new marketing method. The first English reference is found in the 1595 Oxford English Dictionary. Evidence records auction activity as early as 500 BC and during the Roman Empire.

Although auctions are fun, the reason they have been successful for thousands of years is that they work.

It's hard to imagine anything today that cannot be sold at auction. The "traditional" auction merchandise that immediately comes to mind is expanding to include new types of commodities. Real estate, automobiles, repossessions and other merchandise previously overlooked as suitable auction material are all a part of today's auction industry.