Can't imagine what the next decade will bring? Try doing some Google and Yahoo! searches of “the future of online auctions.” They will turn up a range of wild guesses, plus some serious predictions from five or six years ago that are largely obsolete. The truth is, no one really knows what the future holds, nor what the online auction world will look like five or ten years from now. Most likely, however, the pace of technology advances will be fast, and keeping in step with the times will be a constant challenge. Still, you should try to stay aware of new technology and new features that will affect online auctions. You should also try to take advantage of advances and improvements that can improve your sales, boost your profits, and simplify your work.

Universal Auction Registration

Imagine the possibilities and the convenience. What if you could sign up at one central online clearinghouse, then go to any auction site, and bid without having to repeatedly register and give out credit card information? What if your feedback scores traveled with you, so you didn't have to keep juggling several screen identities and building up good reputations on each auction site you frequent?

These conveniences haven't been created yet. But their development and adoption in the future could turbocharge the use and growth of online auction sales.

Niche-Within-Niche Auctions

Many buyers don't care that eBay currently offers hundreds of categories and sub-categories of auction items. They prefer to specialize in one narrowly focused corner of one auction grouping, such as early twentieth-century Appalachian art, 1950s electric guitars, World War II movie posters, or Soviet-era Russian navy uniforms. For sub-categories that have enough buying and selling of valuable items, it might become possible to create effective niche-within-niche auction sites that specialize in just one thing, such as baseball trading cards, first-edition books signed by their authors, or vintage balsa model airplane kits. However, such sites will likely not appear until more growth surges into the Internet and brings new buyers and sellers into the sphere of online auctions.

Big Sites Getting Bigger

Hundreds of auction sites are online, with more showing up almost every day. They can't all succeed. Failures already have happened, and other sites, new or old, will collapse in the near future. Consolidation is inevitable. It is not likely that Amazon, Yahoo! or uBid will displace eBay as the runaway market leader in online auctions. But some of the smaller sites may be consumed or may give up the auction business if they can't steal away more of eBay's market share. The smart auction seller will not focus on one site. Instead, she will try to use the best features of at least two or three auction sites and heed the ancient warning against putting all of your virtual eggs in one digital basket.