What are the benefits of a first price sealed bid auction? All parties make a single bid. But do not disclose the bid to peers. The organizer chooses the maximum (or minimum) bid as the winner. What are benefits of such a system as opposed to normal auction where bidders openly declare the bids and keep updating based on the current maximum ( or minimum )?
A good article to read about this is by Susan Athey, Jonathan Levin and Enrique Seira. It has the title: "Comparing Open and Sealed Bid Auctions: Theory and Evidence from Timber Auctions," was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 126(1), 2011, 207-257, and is available online at: 

http://faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/athey/documents/comparingformats.pdf. 

The abstract includes this: "We study entry and bidding patterns in sealed bid and open auctions. Using data from U.S. Forest Service timber auctions, we document a set of systematic effects: sealed bid auctions attract more small bidders, shift the allocation towards these bidders, and can also generate higher revenue. A private value auction model with endogenous participation can account for these
qualitative effects of auction format."