Abstract: An online descending bid auction for selling an item to clients on a network. A server on the network announces a starting price for the item and the duration of the auction, then proceeds to decrement the price at intervals of the remaining time and present the new price to the clients, the size of the decrements or the intervals or both characterized such that the clients cannot predict the them. The clients bid by indicating acceptance of the current price. If a bid is received before the end of the auction time, the bidder is optionally checked to verify that he or she has not previously bid for this particular item already. If the check is positive the bid is accepted and the item goes to that client. Optionally, for a predetermined length of time, the clients can then purchase more units of the item at the accepted bid price.