Talk:American auction

American and Vickrey auctions
DropDeadGorgias, you wouldn't have a source on this point would you? A quick google search hasn't turned anything up, either for or against their being the same thing. OneLook gives only this Wikipedia redirect as a definition for "American auction". Up to now my understanding has been that in an American auction there is the regular sequence of bidding, but unlike in the regular (English) auction, each of the bidders pays the difference between their bid (or bids) and the previous bid. When bidding stops, the item goes to the last bidder. The total amount paid for the item is the sum of all the differences. I'd like to create a disambiguation page and a stub for "American auction"; any comments are appreciated. modify 14:41, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
 * It's been a while, but as I recall, when I first encounted this article, it was a redirect to "Dollar Auction", which is clearly incorrect. At the time I believe I was able to find sources on Google saying that an American Auction was a Vickrey auction, but unfortunately it is now lost due to the wikipedia mirroring.  According to Google Books, the term American auction is merely the British term for an English auction (i.e. a multiple-unit, sealed bid auction).  I am not personally an authority on this source so I'm hesitant to speculate any further than that.  --DDG 14:55, 15 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Many thanks, that's helpful to know. I think I'll do some more research and see if maybe it would be good to add a stub. Regards, modify 18:22, 15 September 2006 (UTC)