An "eBay analog" has been launched in Russia: Migtorg has expanded auctions for property and equipment
The essence of the change is that the "liquid" and retail market is no longer a niche only about cars and confiscation. Businesses are facing rising costs of storing and maintaining assets, money is "stuck" in equipment, leftovers, and office infrastructure, and classic sales channels are often slow and opaque. Against this background, an auction is a convenient compromise: the seller quickly gets the market price, the buyer gets a chance to buy cheaper with clear rules, and the transaction itself is fixed in a clear legal framework.
Migtorg is betting on "open pricing" — the cost is formed by bidding, and not by a closed algorithm or manual arrangements. Moreover, the expansion is towards B2B and "parallel" B2C: cars, equipment, furniture, electronics and other assets. It is also important that the site has a "Property" section — and we are already talking about thousands of active lots (remnants of production, office equipment, electronics, consumer goods, auto parts).
The key focus is the security of the transaction and anti—fraud. This is critical for the auction market: the fear of fraud is the main stop factor for the mass buyer. Therefore, attention to the mechanics of payment and the moment of money transfer is a strong signal that the platform is targeting a wider audience, and not just professional "overbidders".
The central quote that sets the positioning of the project:
"Our goal is not to reinvent the wheel, but to create a domestic equivalent of Ebay with an understandable and secure environment where the purchase and sale of property takes place transparently and according to market rules. We arrange the auction so that the participants understand the terms of the transaction in advance, and the price is formed openly, without hidden mechanisms. And of course, special attention is paid to countering fraudsters, the transfer of funds is carried out only after signing the purchase and sale agreement," said Alexander Korotkov, CEO of Migtorg.
Why this is important in the logic of foreign economic activity and the "real economy". First, auctions accelerate asset turnover: decommissioned equipment, inventory balances, and illiquid assets turn into money faster, which means companies have the resource to purchase, import components, and upgrade their fleet. Secondly, for small businesses it is an opportunity to "enter cheaply" into production and trade chains: to buy machinery, furniture, electronics or transport at a market price determined by demand. Thirdly, in the car segment, an auction can be a way to reduce the total cost of ownership, even taking into account mandatory payments (including recycling) — the market begins to consider the full economics of the purchase, and not just the "price tag in the window."
Then a lot depends on two things: the width of the real lots (not the "showcase" ones, but the assets in demand) and the quality of the moderation/legal infrastructure. If these elements are aligned, a separate layer of auction-commerce is actually being formed in Russia — not a replacement for marketplaces, but an independent channel for selling property and accelerating capital turnover.
