Sealed Bid

A type of auction process in which all bidders simultaneously submit sealed bids to the auctioneer, so that no bidder knows how much the other auction participants have bid. The highest bidder is usually, but not always, declared the winner of the bidding process. In a sealed-bid auction, bidders can only submit one bid and therefore cannot adjust their bids based on competing bids. A sealed-bid auction process may also not be as transparent as an open outcry auction.