People tend to think that when they hear the term live bid online auction that it must be something similar to eBay where individual items are being offered by one person. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. Typically, a live bid online auction will be conducted by a licensed auctioneer who will be selling off the contents of an estate, the property from a defunct business, or any other kind of products you may find at your typical, traditional live auction house.

Antiques and Antiquities

One of the reasons many people love going to live auctions is that they have the ability to bid on antiques and even antiquities that are being liquidated from an estate, museum, or failed business. That’s exactly what a live online auction house will sell as well. One of the most popular categories at such live online auctions is, in fact, antiques and antiquities just as you may find at a traditional auction house.

The merchandise being sold will typically be the entire contents of an estate or a business and thus you can find the same kind of great bargains that you would find at a traditional auction without having to actually go to the auction house. Think of it as making a telephone bid, but in the 21st century.

Office Supplies and Equipment

You may find live online auction houses selling off office equipment just like you see on eBay. However if that’s the case, they’ll probably have a whole pile of used computers, printers, fax machines, and monitors because they came from a business that has gone belly up. The sales will typically be for whole lots of various types of materials just as you may find at a traditional auction house as opposed to the traditional eBay style auction where just one or two of any particular item is being offered for sale.

Brick a Brack and Other Household Items

Since live online auctions will typically sell off the entire contents of someone’s home, they will typically have all the same kind of materials you would find on a traditional auctioneer’s block, including the common household items that come with a whole estate liquidation sale.

However, unlike at a traditional auction house, there may not be a cash and carry policy in place and if there is, it will definitely be optional since most live bid online auction houses will offer to arrange to ship the items you won in the auction directly to your home, especially if you happen to live out of state.

Everything Else

We once saw an auction house offering up items ranging from an in-home vegetable gardening system to a set of high-end dishes. Similarly to that, live bid online auctions will offer up pretty much anything and everything you can think of that may have some kind of value for potential buyers.

However, you should not expect to see lots of handmade items from the seller unless the person whose estate is being liquidated happened to have been of the artistic bent or happened to have collected those items.