User Base:  

Auction Fire’s users are few and don’t have much to offer. The average number of auctions at any given time is about 16,000. Most categories have few if any listings.

Fees:  

Auction Fire has no initial fees for registration or for listing an item. The final value fee for all items successfully sold is 2.5% Having your auction featured on the homepage is free.

Selling:  

Selling options on Auction Fire are available, but limited. Dutch auctions are not available. Sellers can list an item at a fixed price. Sellers don’t have many other options, and are not allowed to cancel bids or block potentially dangerous bidders.

Auction Fire used to offer a “Sellers Ad-vantage” program with additional promotion benefits, but it is no longer available.

Buying:  

Buying is pretty straightforward at Auction Fire. There are advanced searching features, but sorting options aren’t available. Using the category listings to locate specific items is difficult and doesn’t quickly get you to the actual listings or pictures.

Reliability/Security:  

Auction Fire relies on the typical feedback system utilized by several other online auction sites. However, Auction Fire, as a company has an unsatisfactory rating with the Better Business Bureau due to unanswered complaints. In addition, the Better Business Bureau has been unable to determine if Auction Fire has a valid local business license.

Auction items for mature audiences are not monitored and are often even prominently displayed as featured items on the front page.

Help/Support:  

Auction Fire has email support and a place to chat with other members. The FAQs section is somewhat helpful, but the most thorough section is about the Sellers Ad-vantage program that isn’t even available anymore.

Auction Fire has a fairly small user base offering a limited amount of items for auction. The standardized final value fee is nice. Auction Fire is sort of confusing and difficult to navigate and offers no compelling features for buyers or sellers. We suggest looking at our higher ranked auction sites for a better eBay alternative. See our reviews of eBid and OnlineAuction.