Auctioned off the means to acquire knowledge (9)
I believe the answer is:
education
'knowledge' is the definition.
(I know that education is a type of cognitive content)
'auctioned off' is the wordplay.
'off' indicates anagramming the letters.
'auctioned' with letters rearranged gives 'EDUCATION'.
'the means to acquire' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for education that I've seen before include "Teaching process" , "what may be completed by degrees" , "Academy's aim" , "School's responsibility" , "Work of master" .)