A Vickrey auction is a type of sealed-bid auction, where bidders submit written bids without knowing the bid of the other people in the auction. The highest bidder wins, but the price paid is the second highest bid. The auction was created by William Vickrey. This type of auction is strategically similar to an English auction, and gives bidders an incentive to bid their true value.
A reverse auction (sometimes called a procurement auction or tender) is a type of auction in which the role of the buyer and seller are reversed. In a more typical auction, the seller puts up an item for sale, multiple buyers bid for the item and depending on the nature of the auction (English or Dutch), and one or more of the highest bidders buy the goods at a price determined by the bidding.
In an English auction (also called an Open-outcry auction), the auctioneer begins the auction with the reserve price (lowest acceptable price) and then takes larger and larger bids from the customers until no one will increase the bid. The item is then sold to the highest bidder.
A Chinese auction is a type of auction (actually a combination of auction and raffle) that is typically featured at charity or other fundraising events.
In a Chinese auction, bidders are not prospective buyers (as in the conventional English auction). Instead, they buy tickets, which are essentially chances to win items. Bidders may buy as many tickets as they like, and bid them on any item(s) they want by placing them in a basket or other container in front of the item(s) they are trying to win. At the conclusion of bidding, the winning ticket is drawn from the tickets bid on each item, and the item is given to the owner of that ticket.
A bidder may increase their chance of winning by buying and bidding more tickets on a specific item. Although there is generally no limit to the number of tickets a given individual may bid on a specific item, the chance of winning depends on the total number of tickets bid by all individuals.
In the game of contract bridge, a convention is an agreed-upon meaning for a call (a bid, double or redouble, or a pass) during the auction phase of the hand. Often, the inventor of the convention gives it a name; some widespread conventions got a name after their (perceived) authors.
Conventional opening leads and discards may also be used. The term, however, usually denotes just a bidding convention.
