Scrap Auction vs Fixed Price: When Each One Makes You More Money

Scrap auction vs fixed price on the same lot

Scrap auction vs fixed price, on the same 20 tonnes of #1 Copper Bare Bright. You can put it on the Scraplytics Marketplace as a 48-hour auction or as a fixed-price listing. The same material will land you a different number depending on which one you choose. This is the playbook for picking.

Auctions win when there is competition

An auction is a price-discovery tool. It works when demand is thicker than supply for what you are listing. Specifically:

• Liquid grades with many active buyers - Bare Bright copper, clean aluminium 6061, shred HMS-1.
• Standard quantities that fit a normal mill order or container load.
• No urgency on your side. You can afford to wait 24-72 hours.
• You have a strong trust score. Buyers bid more aggressively on sellers with established reputation, because they price in less risk.

When all four are true, run the auction. We routinely see auction lots clear at 2-5% above the asking price on liquid grades, and double-digit lifts on tight materials where two or three buyers genuinely want it.

The catch: an auction is a public process. You should be ready to honour whatever number wins. Pulling a lot mid-auction is brand-damaging.

Fixed price wins when discovery is not the bottleneck

A fixed-price listing is the right call when:

• The material is narrow - odd specs, contaminated lots, off-grade material that only one or two buyers in your region will touch.
• You need to move it now. Storage is full, you need cash, a buyer is sitting on the line.
• You already know the market price - there is a published mill index or yesterday's deal, and you do not need price discovery, you need execution.
• You want to control who buys it. Fixed-price listings can be set to PUBLIC, PRIVATE (invite-only), or INVITE_ONLY (specific counterparties).

Fixed price closes faster - often within hours - because the buyer just clicks Make Offer at your number. The Marketplace converts an accepted offer into a deal automatically (with the Sales Order and Purchase Order drafted in both yards), so the "speed" gain compounds: same-day to a tracked deal, not next-week to a phoned contract.

The decision, briefly

• Clean liquid grade, multiple buyers, no rush: auction.
• Tight or off-spec material with 1-2 likely buyers: fixed price.
• You need cash this week: fixed price near market.
• You believe the market is moving up: auction; let competition find the peak.
• Specific counterparty already in mind: fixed price, INVITE_ONLY.
• Large, hard-to-place lot with breaking news in the metal: auction; capitalise on attention.

Two small operating habits that matter

Set a floor on auctions. The Marketplace honours a reserve price under the hood. Set it at the lowest number you would actually take. The auction will close above it or not at all - protecting you from a flash crash in attendance.

Use the trust score as a discount lever, not a barrier. Verified, highly-rated counterparties are the ones who pay top dollar because they have less risk to price in. If you have a 4.8 star rating from 47 deals, your asking price should reflect it - the marketplace surfaces that score next to every listing.

What the deal does for you after acceptance

The strategic choice is which listing type - the operational reward kicks in after acceptance:

• A tracked deal is opened.
• The seller's Sales Order and the buyer's Purchase Order are drafted automatically (no double-entry).
• Settlement can be online (Stripe / Razorpay / M-Pesa) or offline bank transfer.
• The moment payment clears, a delivery dispatch job is auto-created in the seller's yard.
• A confirmation PDF lands in both inboxes.

So the real question is not "auction vs fixed" - it is "which one fills my pipeline fastest, given THIS lot, THIS week, THIS market". The platform takes care of the rest.

The yard that auctions everything leaves easy money on the table. The yard that fixed-prices everything leaves auction lifts on the table. Pick the right tool, twice.