wmloz, dude, chill

lol...i wasn't sayin you were "wrong" at all, it's just i thought you were thinkin along those same lines i was ( a dutch auction, also popularly known as a reverse auction, even a counter auction, perhaps its definition has changed, i'll read the wiki article the other guy put up ) ie, when you said people bid on the "prize", whatever it may be, and the lowest bid was chosen i thought you had meant it was the owner (seller) who kept lowerin the price, thus my comment...:undecided:
and guess what ! we are BOTH correct except we're both thinkin of completely different things, what you described on the last post is also a reverse auction, normally silent just like you said, secret bids, real popular for awardin contracts/jobs, i have seen them, sorry i missed your 1st point !
but...i have taken part in what i was told was a "dutch" auction, which many refer to as "reverse" too, and they are completely different, w/one thing in common, the seller (owner) or whoever starts them has one objective: his botom line, so to make as much money as he can (my example, typical dutch) he goes by takin the highest bid, only he'll go 100 (no one takes it), 90 (same result) and so on till he finds a buyer, that's what i think of when i hear "dutch", whereas in your instance he wants (owner/seller) to spend as little as he can, so he gives the job/contract to whomever submitted the lowest bid ! now i get what you were thinkin of, you were correct (and hopefully so was i ...lol) later.....