U.S. patent application number 10/152461 was filed with the patent office on 2002-11-07 for multiple auction coordination method and system.
This patent application is currently assigned to OMNIHUB, INC.. Invention is credited to Krane, Jonathan Adam, Rackson, Randall I., Trevisani, Peter J..
Application Number | 20020165817 10/152461 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 26849597 |
Filed Date | 2002-11-07 |
United States Patent
Application |
20020165817 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Rackson, Randall I. ; et
al. |
November 7, 2002 |
Multiple auction coordination method and system
Abstract
A multi-auction service system and method for replicating an
item to be auctioned at a plurality of remote auction services,
where the multi-auction service detects bids at the plurality of
remote auction services for the item in order to replicate the
optimal bid at each of the remote auction services such that the
optimal bid is afforded to a bidder or seller.
Inventors: |
Rackson, Randall I.;
(Stamford, CT) ; Krane, Jonathan Adam; (New York,
NY) ; Trevisani, Peter J.; (Santa Fe, NM) |
Correspondence
Address: |
PENNIE & EDMONDS LLP
1155 Avenue of Americas
New York
NY
10036-2711
US
|
Assignee: |
OMNIHUB, INC.
|
Family ID: |
26849597 |
Appl. No.: |
10/152461 |
Filed: |
May 21, 2002 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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10152461 |
May 21, 2002 |
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09440584 |
Nov 15, 1999 |
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6415270 |
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60152473 |
Sep 3, 1999 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/37 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 40/10 20130101;
G06Q 40/04 20130101; G06Q 30/02 20130101; G06Q 40/06 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/37 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/60 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method of coordinating an auction for an item between a
multi-auction service, a plurality of remote auction services, and
a plurality of bidders, the multi-auction service performing the
steps of: a) detecting that at least one bid for an item has been
received by at least one of the remote auction services; b)
determining which, if any, of the remote auction services should
receive a replicated bid; c) transmitting the replicated bid to
each of the remote auction services so determined.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprises the steps of: d)
receiving selling parameters from the seller representative of the
item to be auctioned and preferences for the auction process; e)
storing the indicia representative of the item to be auctioned in
memory associated with the multi-auction service.
3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of determining
by the multi-auction service and/or the seller on which of the
plurality of remote auction services the item will be
auctioned.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein if the quantity available is
greater than one, the multi-auction service may split the quantity
available into multiple lots to be auctioned at one or more remote
auction services in either simultaneous or consecutive
auctions.
5. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of determining which
remote auction services are to be selected to host auctions for the
item comprises analyzing historical auction data on items similar
to the item to be auctioned across prospective remote auction
services.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of
transmitting selling parameters for the item to at least one remote
auction service.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein certain selling parameters have an
associated language further comprising the step of translating the
language of the descriptive selling parameters to an alternative
language suitable for bidders at the remote auction service prior
to transmitting the selling parameters to the remote auction
service.
8. The method of claim 6 wherein the seller parameters of the item
transmitted to one or more remote auction services comprises
identifying the multi-auction service as the seller in order to
conceal the seller's identity.
9. The method of claim 6 wherein the seller is identified as a
subaccount of the multi-auction service and the seller's identity
is not concealed.
10. The method of claim 6 wherein the seller is identified directly
or as an independent account at one or more remote auction services
and the seller's identity is not concealed.
11. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of
prioritizing the transmitting of replicated bids to remote auction
services.
12. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of the
multi-auction server determining whether the replicated bid should
be identified as coming from the originating bidder, the
multi-auction service or a third party proxy representative.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining step determines
that at least one of the remote auction services should receive the
replicated bid.
14. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining step determines
that the remote auction service that did not detect the bid should
receive the replicated bid.
15. The method of claim 1 wherein the functions performed by the
multi-auction service are performed by a multi-auction service
computer, the functions performed by remote auction service are
performed by remote auction server computer, and the functions
performed by the bidder are performed by a bidder computing devices
all of which are interconnected by a computer network.
16. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of the
multi-auction service determining which of the detected bids is an
optimal bid for the item by evaluating at least one of all of the
following: nominal bid levels, the time stamp of the bids, the
performance statistics of the bidders, and adjusting the bids for
ancillary costs or otherwise prioritizing bids.
17. The method of claim 1 wherein more than one remote auction
service receives an equivalent nominal bid for the item, and
wherein the multi-auction service performs the steps further
comprising: d) establishing which of the detected equivalent bids
is an optimal bid for the item; e) determining which of the remote
auction services is to receive a replicated optimal bid, if any; f)
transmitting the optimal bid as the replicated bid to each of the
determined remote auction services; and g) transmitting to the
remote auction services with an equivalent bid that is not the
optimal bid or to that bidder directly, indicia that the nominally
equivalent bid level is insufficient.
18. The method of claim 17 wherein the method of establishing which
of the nominally equivalent bids is an optimal bid consists of
comparing the time stamp of the bids, evaluating the performance
statistics of the bidder, adjusting the bid for ancillary costs or
otherwise prioritizing nominally equivalent bids.
19. The method of claim 17 wherein the indicia transmitted to the
remote auction service(s) comprises posting of a text message that
the bid level is insufficient.
20. The method of claim 17 wherein the indicia transmitted to the
remote auction service(s) comprises posting an incremental bid
level, rendering the previous bid insufficient.
21. The method of claim 17 wherein the bidder is notified directly
of the insufficiency of the bid via email, fax, telephone, pager,
instant message or other form of communication.
22. A method for allowing a bidder to communicate with a
multi-auction service to allow the multi-auction service to
selectively place bids at remote auction services for a plurality
of items where at least one item is desired, comprising the steps
of: a) the bidder specifying to the multi-auction service an item
or items tto be bid upon and their respective bidding parameters;
b) the bidder specifying to the multi-auction service at least one
rule for bidding on similar or dissimilar items across auctions; c)
the multi-auction service periodically detecting the current
optimal bid of the item at each of the respective remote auction
services; d) the multi-auction service generating and transmitting
bids on the item or items such that an optimal bid for the bidder
is active via at least one of the remote auction services if
permitted by the at least one rule.
23. The method of claim 22 wherein if the quantity available is
greater than one, the bidder may bid on up to the available
quantity.
24. The method of claim 22 wherein the buyer is not identified
directly at one or more remote auction services and the buyer's
identity is concealed.
25. The method of claim 22 wherein at least one item identifier and
at least one rule for bidding is stored in memory associated with
the multi-auction service.
26. The method of claim 22 wherein at least one rule specifies at
least one of the maximum payment the bidder is willing to pay for
the item and the duration of the bid to buy the item.
27. The method of claim 22 wherein at least one rule specifies that
similar items are sought by the bidder where the bidder has a
preference for one of the similar items as expressed by either a
willingness to pay a premium for the item or other expressed
preference scheme.
28. The method of claim 11 or 22 wherein the timing of transmitting
replicated bids is based on the time remaining to the close of the
auction, level of bidding activity at the auction, proximity of the
current bid level to a reserve or sudden death price, or the value
of the item being auctioned.
29. The method of claim 1 or 22 wherein the step of detecting that
the bid has been received by a remote auction service comprises
receiving a notification message from the remote auction service
that the bid has changed on the item.
30. The method of claim 1 or 22 wherein the periodicity of the
multi-auction server probing one or more remote auction services in
order to detect that bid have been received by one or more remote
auction services is based on time remaining to the close of the
auction, level of bidding activity at the auction, proximity of the
current bid level to a reserve or sudden death price, and/or the
value of the item being auctioned.
31. The method of claim 1 or 22 further comprising the step of the
multi-auction service requesting or responding to a request by the
remote auction service or seller that bidding is to be suspended at
the determined remote auction services.
32. The method of claim 1 or 22 wherein the bids placed on various
remote auction services are denominated in different currencies,
further comprising the step of translating the currency of the bid
into another currency in order to facilitate a comparison of
value.
33. The method of claim 1 or 22 wherein the bids placed on various
remote auction services are denominated in different currencies,
further comprising the step of translating the replicated bid into
the appropriate currency for the particular remote auction service
prior to transmitting the bid to said remote auction service.
34. The method of claim 1 or 22 wherein the multi-auction service
determines that a closing event has occurred based on the selling
parameters for the auction and/or indicia received from one or more
remote auction services and initiates a closing process that
signals the end of the auction.
35. The method of claim 34 wherein the closing process comprises at
least one of the steps of: e) communicating with the seller the
optimal bid(s) received and the optimal bidder(s); f) communicating
with the buyer his status as the optimal bidder; g) communicating
with remote auction services from which optimal bids originated; h)
communicating with remote auction services from which optimal bids
did not originate; i) communicating with "backup" buyers their
status in the event the optimal bidder fails to perform; j)
calculating and reconciling fees associated with the auction; k)
coordinating payment of the fees with participants; l) coordinating
payment of the item by the buyer to the seller; m) shipping the
item to the buyer; n) communicating with the buyer after the sale
to assess satisfaction; and o) making data related to the bidders
and auction activity available as marketing data to third
parties.
36. The method of claim 34 wherein detecting that a closing event
has occurred comprises periodically communicating with each of the
selected remote auction services.
37. The method of claim 34 wherein the closing process comprises
comparing the optimal bid or bids to a reserve price or amount
established by the seller (or established by the bidder in the case
of "reverse" auctions).
38. The method of claim 34 further comprises the step of
communicating the existence of a closing event to the determined
remote auction services.
39. The method of claim 34 wherein the multi-auction server
determines that a closing event detected or initiated at a remote
auction service should trigger the premature close of auctions at
other remote auction services and communicates such to the other
remote auction services.
40. The method of claim 1 or 22 further comprising verifying that
the transmitted bids were successfully replicated on the remote
auction services so determined by comparing the current remote
auction service bid to the previous optimal bid intended to be
replicated.
41. The method of claim 1 or 22 further comprising storing detected
bids and bidder identifiers for items in memory of the
multi-auction service for a variety of uses, including but not
limited to identifying optimal and substitute bidders, and
developing bidder data to be marketed to the seller and/or other
purveyors of services.
42. The method of claim 41 wherein an alternative optimal bidder is
selected if the original optimal bidder does not perform.
43. The method of claim 41 further comprising the step of analyzing
the bid history for items in order to determine the efficacy of any
or all of the following: auction formats; various remote auction
services; auction duration and timing; closing events; expected
closing price range; descriptive text, graphics, video and
audio.
44. The method of claim 41 further comprising the step of providing
a database reporting system for clients to monitor and track the
bidding and transaction activity occurring on remote auction
services on selected items.
45. The method of claim 22 further comprising the step of the
multi-auction service determining which item at the remote auction
services match the bidder criteria for items to be bid upon.
46. The method of claim 3 wherein the at least one item to be
auctioned are not split into multiple lots and are auctioned as a
single lot at more than one remote auction services concurrently by
replicating and coordinating the auction at more than one remote
auction service.
47. A networked system for coordinating the sale of an item to an
optimal bidder across a plurality of remote auction services
comprising: a) a networked multi-auction service system comprising:
i) means for communicating with the plurality of remote auction
services; ii) means for replicating the item to be auctioned at the
plurality of networked remote auction services; iii) means for
detecting a plurality of bids from a plurality of remote auction
services; iv) means for determining which of said plurality of
detected bids is the optimal bid; v) means for replicating the
optimal bid across the plurality of remote auction services; b) the
plurality of networked remote auction services each comprising: vi)
means for receiving selling parameters for the item to be auctioned
from the multi-auction service or sellers directly; vii) means for
receiving bids for the item to be auctioned from the plurality of
bidders and said multi-auction service; viii) means for updating
the bid for the item to be auctioned; and c) a plurality of bidders
comprising means for bidding on the item to be auctioned at one or
more of the remote auction services.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is based on and claims filing priority of
co-pending U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/152,473,
filed on Sep. 3, 1999, entitled, INTERNET-BASED MULTIPLE AUCTION
COORDINATION SYSTEM, which is incorporated by reference herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to auction systems where a
user specifies parameters of an item for sale in the auction system
and where bidders submit offers for the items for auction.
[0003] Glossary
[0004] The terms used below are provided to facilitate the
understanding of the concepts that are used throughout the claims
and specification. It is not meant to in any way limit or constrain
the scope but is instead intended to provide representative
examples and definitions to assist the readers in their
understanding of the present invention. Other examples may
additionally be defined in the body of the specification or may be
known equivalents in the art for each of these terms.
[0005] auction--Any dynamic pricing system for sale and purchase of
goods and services, where the ultimate price paid by a buyer is not
set in advance by the seller, but rather a function of demand and
supply as determined during the selling process. An auction may
involve buyers competitively bidding for goods and services,
sellers competitively offering goods and services, or buyers and
sellers converging on a mutually agreeable price and quantity of
goods and services to be exchanged.
[0006] closing events--any or all of a set of events which may
cause an auction to close. These events may include, but are not
limited to, some or all of the following: fixed time expiration;
period of bidding inactivity; secret or published "sudden death"
price hit, where the "sudden death" price may be established prior
to the auction or change as a function of auction bidding activity;
cancellation of the auction either by the Seller, the remote
auction service, or the multi auction service.
[0007] item--Any marketable product, service or commodity that can
be adequately described and that has a negotiable value
discoverable through an auction process. The item may be described
and characterized by parameters including quantitative and
qualitative values such as a measure of size, shape, weight,
quantity, condition, age, uniqueness, etc.
[0008] bidder--An entity supplying a bid, either directly or
through an agent or network or agents. An agent may be another
entity or computer agent. A bidder may be entering bids in real
time either directly or through his agent, or may have
pre-specified a set of rules so that his agent can bid
automatically for him.
[0009] seller--An entity which may be an individual, company, agent
or any third party that may have in their possession or represent
the interests of an owner of an item that may be offered for sale
at auction, either directly or through an agent.
[0010] replicated bid--a bid or bids detected by the multi-auction
service for an item at one or more remote auction auction services,
which is subsequently transmitted to one or more other remote
auction services that did not receive the bid. In substance, the
bid replication process allows the optimal bid to appear in all
auctions for the item being auctioned as if the original bidder had
himself entered identical bids in all auctions for the item. The
replicated bid may nominally be identified as coming from the
original bidder, coming from the multi-auction service or coming
from any other third party.
[0011] currency--Any unit of exchange and measure of value,
including hard currencies and barter items. Bids in different
currencies are compared by using tables managed by the remote
auction service. Exchange values may be supplied by the seller, or
by a third party and may reflect either real time conversions using
guaranteed exchange rates, or alternatively an estimated exchange
rate may be employed that is used only for calculation purposes
where the real exchange rate is subject to change until the actual
closure of the transaction.
[0012] memory--The memory means may comprise any type of storage
media that may support the recording of the interactions of the
service. This may comprise paper records, hard disk storage, random
access memory, or any removable or non-removable media that is
accessible either directly or remotely by the service. The content
of memory would typically comprise, but not be limited to, any or
all of the following: information on current and prior bid
activity; item selling parameters; seller, bidder or remote auction
service profile information, interface protocols and contact
information; relative value and auction offering rules specified by
the seller, bidder, Multi-Auction Service or remote auction
services; transaction data; and marketing data. The memory is
accessed by the multi-auction service to record transactions and to
provide data which may be analyzed to determine the optimum selling
or bidding parameters for an item or item type where the optimized
data may be stored in addition to the raw bid information
collected.
[0013] multi-auction service--System of people, computers and
communications systems that coordinate the auction listing, bid
replication and auction management process. Additionally maintains
history of item bids and offers, and identifies categories for
auction items. Provides means for bidders and sellers to specify
parameters of the bidding and selling process such that the
multi-auction service acts as an agent for either the bidder or
seller to achieve an optimal bid price and set of transactions from
the client's perspective.
[0014] optimal bidder--The optimal bid will usually be the entity
that submits the nominally highest bid to the seller and lowest
offer for the buyer, but may be adjusted under certain
circumstances. For example, if the highest bidder has a
questionable credit rating or closing history, or the highest
bidder is using a credit card so that his bid needs to be adjusted
downward by the processing fees, the nominally highest bid may not
be the optimal bid. A database of bidder performance statistics
(closing rates, timeliness, seller feedback, etc.) can be factored
into the "optimal bid" selection process in order to determine an
adjusted bid. When a buyer is using the multi-auction service to
achieve an optimal price that is the lowest price, the item offered
with the lowest bid may have excessive shipping charges or other
ancillary fees that may additionally need to be factored into the
bid price as an adjustment. In the case where multiple items are
auctioned using a Dutch auction format, the term Optimal Bidder
will be used to describe the set of Optimal Bids submitted by
bidders.
[0015] remote auction service--an entity hosting an auction or
facilitating the sale of items in an auction style format where the
price is a function of demand and supply. May be electronic (eBay,
Yahoo, Amazon) or physical (Sotheby's, Christies). May be domestic
or international, general or niche specific. The remote auction
service need not be a registered auctioneer. It may operate in a
manual mode or in a highly computerized mode of operation with
respect to the management of an auction. For purposes of this set
of specification and claims, if an item appears at a single remote
auction service in multiple independent auctions, each instance of
the item at a remote auction service is considered a separate and
independent remote auction service.
[0016] reserve price--a minimum price that a Seller will accept for
an item, or a minimum amount a Seller will accept for a batch of
similar or dissimilar items.
[0017] selling parameters--any or all of a set of parameters
describing an Item and how it is to be offered in an auction
including, but not limited to, some or all of the following: item
description which may comprise in addition to text in various
languages, graphic and audio representation such as image file,
photograph, audio file, video clip or other content that provides a
representation of the item; quantity of items offered or desired;
starting date and time; applicable closing events; reserve price;
starting bid; expected bid range; auction format (e.g. standard,
Dutch, etc); physical item location and shipping arrangements;
optimal bid adjustment procedures and currency conversion tables;
selling restrictions (e.g. no international, etc.). These
parameters may be defined by the seller with assistance by the
multi-auction service or may be generated exclusively by the
multi-auction service or seller alone.
[0018] In the case of "reverse" auctions where a buyer provides
parameters for an item to be purchased and sellers offer
competitively at successively lower prices to proves the item, the
term "selling parameters" should be understood to be those
parameters provided by the prospective buyer which describe the
item to be purchased and the auction process in which sellers will
compete to provide the good or service in question.
[0019] Prior art auction methods require a seller to contact an
auction service in order to place an item for sale through an
auction process. The item is typically transferred to an auction
location prior to the auction date. Bidders assemble on the auction
date and bid on items of interest. Electronic enhancements have
been made to the auction process to allow remote bidders and
sellers to engage in auctions for items. These enhancements have
typically involved facilitating the auction process while keeping
the same general foundation where a user offers a product for
auction through an intermediary (auctioneer) that executes the
auction and receives bids for the item. At the end of a specified
period of time or when no further bids are received, the
intermediary closes the auction to further bidding and the highest
bidder pays for and receives the item. While the seller and bidder
may be represented by other parties, the ultimate control of the
auction is performed in a centralized manner where the auctioneer
runs the process.
[0020] Prior art electronic auction systems on the World Wide Web
have implemented a similar methodology to allow more widespread
visibility of items to be auctioned to allow sellers to submit
items for auction on-line where user's bids from around the world
may be received and recorded as the auction progresses. The seller
contacts an auction service to indicate that an item is available
for sale. The seller identifies the item and specifies the
parameters of the auction. The actual auction process is executed
by the auction service in accordance with the seller or auctioneer
specified rules for the auction of that item. The item does not
have to be located where the auction is run, but in order to
guarantee the integrity of the auction so that the winning bidder
is able to purchase the item, the auction service must have the
exclusive right to offer the item. When the auction is over, the
highest bidder is contacted and the goods are shipped from the
seller to the highest bidder. The terms for the sale are specified
in the auction, but the coordination of the shipping is usually
arranged between the buyer and seller although some sites provide
shipping as an extra service.
[0021] In order for a seller to use the auction site, the seller
must register and provide an item description. The auction sites
may require that sellers provide some means of authentication that
the items represented are of the quality described. Different
auction sites may have different forms of verification or may
require that the item be submitted or shipped to the auction site
prior to auction. For those sites that do not require shipping the
product prior to auction, the shipping of the product may be
arranged between the seller and the buyer or facilitated by the
auction service.
[0022] While these auction sites provide a means for sellers to
offer goods for sale, the seller has to determine the single best
auction site for the product to be sold. The seller may receive
substantially more or less than expected depending on the number of
bidders and what they are willing to pay. The seller can not list
an item on more than one site because the winning bidder in each
auction rightfully expects to be able to buy the item, of which the
seller has only one. Unless a seller is willing to "default", the
seller is currently limited to choosing a single auction site for
any particular item. It is therefore to the benefit of the seller
to choose the best auction site for that type of product. The best
site may be the Bite that has the most user traffic, or it may be a
specialized site that offers items for sale in limited classes of
products. For example, a coin collector could offer a highly
desirable coin for sale at a general auction site such as Ebay, or
alternatively the coin collector may choose to place the coin at an
auction site that caters to knowledgeable coin buyers. Other
services may be provided to show the seller the price of similar
products. This may require the seller to investigate different web
sites to determine which auction site has the most traffic or has
sold similar items at the highest price.
[0023] The final sale price is ultimately dependent on the number
of bidders for a product at that site and the visibility of that
item among all the items being offered at that site. A seller
hoping to receive the highest price is therefore limited to the
users accessing that web site that are bidding on that product.
Auction services have provided users with different means to
increase the visibility of the item to be sold by establishing
classification methods that allow the user's item to be more
frequently retrieved by the search engine. The user typically pays
an added amount for preferred placement of their item on the web
pages generated. These aspects of placement, while providing better
visibility on that web site do not offer the visibility beyond that
auction server.
[0024] U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,896, METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING
AND TRANSMITTING ELECTRONIC AUCTION INFORMATION, assigned to OnSale
Inc., discloses an automated system used for auctions on the
Internet where the buyer submits bids to the system which validates
the bids and ultimately notifies the successful bidder(s) when the
auction is over. During the auction process, the server updates the
page image stored on the server so new users requesting the page
see the most recent bid information. Recently outbid users are
notified via email of higher bids. Users may also be represented by
automated processes that bid incrementally in an automated fashion
up to a predefined user specified value. Different auction types
are supported such as Standard Auction, Dutch Auction, and
Progressive Auction. A bid closing process called "Floating Closing
Time" is additionally disclosed whereby inactivity for a period of
time will end the auction of the item prior to the fixed closing
time specified in the auction.
[0025] U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,138 COMPUTER AUCTION SYSTEM, assigned to
Bid.Com International Inc., discloses another Internet based
auction system where users access a central database of products to
purchase items from a quantity of similar items. The timeframe of
the offer is strictly controlled and a number of items are offered
where the price decreases until all of the items are sold or until
the timeframe of the sale expires. The system updates the displayed
availability information at periodic intervals where the period is
shortened as the sale comes to an end.
[0026] U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,975, COMPUTER IMPLEMENTED METHODS AND
APPARATUS FOR AUCTIONS, discloses an auction system where users may
define bidding rules that are subsequently enforced throughout the
bidding process for an item, thus allowing users to control the
amount of time that they are required to devote to the bidding
process. The user's system and the auctioneers system communicate
automatically to determine how the bidding is incremented according
to the rules defined. Complex rules may be implemented where the
user may specify quantities of an item to be purchased at various
prices.
[0027] What is desired therefore is a methodology of placing an
item for auction that has access to and is visible through more
than one auction service at the same time where the bids received
by any of the auction services affect and are coordinated with each
other, such that each service receives and reflects the highest
price for that item received by any of the participating auction
services.
[0028] The objective of the invention is to provide increased
visibility of an item to be auctioned by mirroring the item to be
offered through a plurality of remote auction services
simultaneously whether these services are computerized (e.g. e-bay,
OnSale.com, etc.) or manually operated (e.g. Sotheby's, Christie's,
etc.). As the auction progresses, when a user bid is entered at one
site or service, it is duplicated at the other sites or services
where the item has been listed. The server process watches each
site and creates a bid on the other sites in real-time that
corresponds to the bid made at the first site. The bid replication
technology revealed here assures that when the auctions are closed,
the winning bid is the same at all sites, and that each bidder who
has a right to purchase the item in question can be satisfied. By
increasing the number of bids for an item and replicating bids
across sites, the price will rise because bidders must compete
against other bidders not only at their site, but at all sites on
which the item is offered. By listing the item on multiple sites,
the seller is gaining visibility for the item and has the most
potential to receive the highest ultimate price.
[0029] It is also desirable to use the functionality of the service
of this invention to provide an optimized method for a bidder to
have the multi-auction service place coordinated bids at one or
more of a plurality of networked remote auction services for a
bidder to enable him to purchase those items at the optimal or
lowest prices from the point of view of the bidder. Prior
electronic art provides a means for a bidder to have an agent
generate automatic bids according to pre-specified rules, which may
be complex. However, each set of rules applies only to a single
auction and considers bidding activity in only that auction.
Contemporaneous bidding activity related to identical items, or
similar items which are viable substitutes, occurring at other
auctions are not considered. The service of this invention allows a
bidder to place an order with the multi-auction service and have
the multi-auction service coordinate a bidding strategy for an item
or items across remote auction services in order to achieve an
optimal result.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0030] A system and method are disclosed for coordinating an
auction for an item between a multi-auction service, a plurality of
remote auction services, and a plurality of bidders, all of which
are interconnected by a network. The multi-auction service
performing the steps of receiving selling parameters for the item
to be auctioned from a seller, transmitting the parameters for the
item to a plurality of remote auction services, throughout the
auction detecting that a bid for the item has been received by at
least one of the remote auction services, determining which of the
remote auction services should receive a replicated bid, and
transmitting a replicated bid to each of the remote auction
services so determined. A second embodiment of the invention
describes the method wherein more than one remote auction service
receives a bid for the item, and wherein the multi-auction service
detects that a bid for the item has been received by more than one
of the remote auction services, establishes which of the received
bids is an optimal bid for the item, and transmits the optimal bid
as the replicated bid to each of the remote auction services.
[0031] A networked system is described for coordinating the sale of
an item to an optimal bidder across a plurality of remote auction
services, where the system comprises a networked multi-auction
service system, a plurality of networked remote auction services,
and a plurality of bidders. The multi-auction service comprises
means for communicating with the plurality of remote auction
services, means for replicating the item to be auctioned at the
plurality of networked remote auction services, means for detecting
a plurality of bids from a plurality of remote auction services,
means for determining which of said plurality of detected bids is
the optimal bid, and means for replicating the optimal bid across
the plurality of remote auction services.
[0032] The remote auction services each comprise means for
receiving selling parameters for the item to be auctioned from the
multi-auction service, means for receiving bids for the item to be
auctioned from the plurality of bidders and said multi-auction
service, and means for updating the bid for the item to be
auctioned.
[0033] Each of the plurality of bidders comprises means for bidding
on the item to be auctioned at one of the remote auction
services.
[0034] A method is additionally disclosed for allowing a bidder to
communicate with a multi-auction service to request the
multi-auction service to selectively place coordinated bids at one
or more remote auction service(s) for a plurality of items where
one item is desired. This method comprises the bidder specifying to
the multi-auction service the item type to be bid upon, the bidder
specifying to the multi-auction service the rules for bidding, the
bidder or the multi-auction service determining which items at the
remote auction services match the bidder requested item, the
multi-auction service periodically checking each of the remote
auction sites to determine which site and item to bid on, and the
multi-auction service placing bids on the item specified at the
remote auction services such that a unique and optimal bid is
active at only one of the remote auction services at a moment in
time and is placed according to the bidder specified rules. In
another embodiment, the bidder may specify rules regarding the
bidders preference for one or more of identical, or similar, items
sought.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
[0035] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the prior art systems involved
in Internet-based auctions;
[0036] FIG. 2 is a diagram of the computing systems of the
multi-auction service system of the present invention;
[0037] FIG. 3 is a diagram of the bid and replication process steps
from the seller's orientation of the present invention;
[0038] FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the process steps for specifying
and replicating bids across a plurality of remote auction
services;
[0039] FIG. 5 is a table of bids in a standard auction mode of the
present invention;
[0040] FIG. 6 is a table of bids in a standard auction involving
tied bidders;
[0041] FIG. 7 is a table of bids in a Dutch auction prior to
replication;
[0042] FIG. 8 is a table of bids in a Dutch auction after
replication;
[0043] FIG. 9 is a table of bids in a Dutch auction involving tied
bidders;
[0044] FIG. 10 is a representation of the components of the present
invention;
[0045] FIG. 11 is a diagram of the bid and replication process
steps from the bidder's orientation of the present invention;
[0046] FIG. 12 is a representation of the user interface for the
definition of bidder parameters for the present invention;
[0047] FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of the process steps performed on
behalf of a bidder;
[0048] FIG. 14 is a representation of a bidder's interface for
monitoring of the bidding process of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0049] The system and method of the present invention provides the
ability for a seller or bidder to input parameters of an item to be
acquired or sold to achieve the optimal price for the item. For a
seller, the system allows sellers to maximize the visibility of the
item to be auctioned by replicating the item across a plurality of
remote auction services. For a bidder, the system provides the
ability for a bidder to specify bid rules to determine where and
how to best achieve the purchasing objectives of the bidder across
a plurality of contemporaneous auctions being held at a plurality
of remote auction services.
[0050] The prior art method of selling and buying items through
networked computer-based auction systems will be described with
respect to FIG. 1 in order for the user to more fully appreciate
the advances afforded by this system for the seller and bidder. For
example, in Internet auctions of the prior art, the seller from a
seller computer system 10 determines which remote auction service
to use to sell the item to be auctioned. The remote auction service
for the purposes of this disclosure, may represent an auction
service portal such as provided by eBay (remote auction service
12), while auction service 14 may be used to represent the auction
services provided by Yahoo. The seller uses a computer 10 to
connect over the Internet 16 to one of the services (12 or 14).
Supposing the seller selects the eBay service 12, the seller then
specifies the description, quantity, auction close date and
optionally a reserve price of the object. A plurality of bidders
from bidder computers 20,22 may connect to the eBay service 12 to
view the seller's description and review prior bid activity or to
place a bid on the item. Once the auction begins, bids for the item
are processed strictly through the seller selected auction service
(eBay) until the close of the auction. The bidders may not bid on
this item from any other auction service. The seller 10 then
contacts the winning bidder 20 and shipping and payment are
arranged between the seller and the bidder. As part of the auction
closing process, the auction service 12 charges the seller an
insertion fee for running the auction, where the cost is a
combination of a fixed listing fee and a fee based on the final
sale price of the item. The fee is either charged to an account
held for the seller in the remote auction service or the seller's
credit card is charged the fee.
[0051] A networked system of the present invention will now be
described for implementing a method for coordinating the sale of an
item to an optimal bidder across a plurality of remote auction
services, where the system comprises a networked multi-auction
service 30 (see FIGS. 2 and 10), a plurality of networked remote
auction services, and a plurality of bidders. The multi-auction
service 30 comprises communications means 34 to transfer selling
parameters of the item to be auctioned to the plurality of
networked remote auction services 14, processor means 36 comprising
means for detecting a plurality of bids from a plurality of remote
auction service computers for the item, means for determining which
of said plurality of detected bids is the optimal bid, and means
for replicating the optimal bid across the plurality of remote
auction services.
[0052] The remote auction services 14 each comprise communications
means 15, processor means comprising means for receiving parameters
for the item to be auctioned from the multi-auction service 30,
means for receiving bids for the item to be auctioned from the
plurality of bidders, and said multi-auction service, and means for
updating the bid for the item to be auctioned.
[0053] Each of the plurality of bidders comprises communications
means 23 for bidding on the item to be auctioned at one of the
remote auction services.
[0054] In the preferred embodiment, the multi-auction service 30
comprises one or more computing devices with memory means 32 (see
FIGS. 3, 10) for storing parameters of the items to be auctioned
52, and identification data for the sellers and bidders 50, and
selling rules and bidding rules 54; means for communicating 34 for
interacting with a plurality of sellers and remote auction services
and bidders; processor means 36 comprising: means for detecting
bids at the remote auction services; means for item replicating for
replicating an item to be auctioned at a plurality of remote
auction services, and means for bid replicating for replicating
detected bids at remote auction services; and means for determining
which bid is an optimal bid and for determining which remote
auction services should be contacted. The memory means 32 may
comprise any type of storage media that may support the recording
of the interactions of the service. This may comprise paper
records, hard disk storage, removable media that is accessible
either directly or remotely by the service. The seller or the
multi-auction service may specify the selling parameters of the
offer to include, but are not limited to, some or all of the
following; starting date and time; closing date and time; reserve
price; a successful bid range; quantity of items; item description
which may comprise in addition to text, graphic representation such
as image file, photograph; audio file; video clip or other content
that provides a representation of the item. These parameters may be
defined by the seller with assistance by the multi-auction service
or may be generated exclusively by the multi-auction service.
[0055] Preferably the memory means 32 comprises a database to
contain these items where the individual items are stored as data
records that have relationships to the bids received. The means for
detecting will be described in detail in the description of the
method of the present invention. The functionality of the systems
used by remote auction services for receiving bids is commonly
known to those skilled in the art and is based on Internet
accessibility via the World Wide Web where a plurality of bidders
operating from computing devices may submit bids for an item of
interest. The remote auction service may be modified in the
preferred embodiment to provide enhanced functionality to enable
and enhance replication and reconciliation of bids as will be
described below.
[0056] In contrast to the prior art method of conducting an
auction, the method and system of the present invention (see FIG.
2) can additionally be implemented in a completely manual mode of
operation or in a partially computerized mode of operation and
comprises interaction between a seller 10, a multi-auction service
30, a plurality of remote auction services 12, 14 and a plurality
of bidders 20, 22. The is multi-auction service 30 can be
representative of an agent for the seller that acts on behalf of
the seller to coordinate placement of the seller's item at a
plurality of auction locations. The plurality of remote auction
services 12, 14 can be representative of peer agents or auction
houses, that may include local auction locations or internationally
known auction facilities, that can accept items for auction and may
additionally involve people that relay bids received on the items
auctioned, back to the multi-auction service. In this manner, the
multi-auction service 30 can have an item listed in paper-based
catalogs where the catalog for a particular auction location
contains descriptive information about the item to be sold. Prior
to the actual auction, a slide image or other representation of the
item may be located at each auction house. When the auction takes
place, the multi-auction service and remote auction service
employees involved in the auction process relay the bids between
participating auction services and the multi-auction service such
that the bid is reflected at each auction location. Sotheby's and
Christies for example, provide a catalog for viewing an item in
advance of an auction to allow participants to preview the items to
be sold. If both of these companies participated in the method of
the present invention, they may participate in the bidding via a
telephone-based bidding process in addition to receiving bids from
the patrons at their auction locations. Bidders may be contacted
when the auction begins via telephone or any other interactive
device. This network-based relay process with the multi-auction
service acting as a hub may alternatively involve devices in
addition to telephones such as, pagers, Internet communications
devices or any other kind of device that allows local or remote
users to participate in the auction process. The multi-auction
service participates in the process acting as a hub and relay
between each of the remote auction services. The bidders may bid
via any of the remote auction services where the multi-auction
service 30 coordinates the bids by replicating the bids to the
participating remote auction services 12, 14 that are determined by
the multi-auction service 30.
[0057] In addition to a manual mode of operation, this system may
be implemented in a computerized method of operation. In this
manner either phone-based communications or computer-based
coordination may be employed to replicate bids for an item to be
sold. The multi-auction service 30 performs the functions required
to provide bid detection and replication for the system. The remote
auction service 12, 14 performs the tasks of executing the auction
and managing bids received by that remote auction service.
[0058] In a simplistic version of the present invention, the method
of replicating an item across a plurality of remote auction
services comprises the steps of transmitting the selling parameters
for the item to be auctioned to the remote auction services;
detecting that a bid for the item has been received by at least one
of the remote auction services; determining which of the remote
auction services should receive a replicated bid; and transmitting
the replicated bid to each of the remote auction services so
determined.
[0059] The replication of the bid may be in the bidders name,
sellers name, a third party name or may merely indicate that an
"away bid" has been received without identifying the exact
source.
[0060] In a comprehensive version of the invention (see FIGS. 3 and
4) where computers or other communication means are used to
coordinate activities, the seller 16 contacts the multi-auction
service 30 at step 100, the seller 16 provides identification data
to the multi-auction service 30 and provides the selling parameters
at step 104. In the preferred embodiment, the multi-auction agent
performs an optional check to review historical records at step 110
to determine how similar items have sold. The multi-auction service
determines from the historical information the optimal selling
parameters to be applied to the items at step 112 and the optimal
remote auction service(s) at which to hold auctions.
[0061] If the seller has more than one item, at step 116 the items
may be sold together or separately. If the items are different but
make up a set, they would probably be sold together. Alternatively
the items could be auctioned separately, where each item would be
described for sale individually at step 120. If the items were the
same, different auction methods could be employed to maximize the
final auction price of the items. In one method, one item at a time
could be released to remote auction services to be auctioned. In
another version, the items could be listed as one or more lots to
be sold, where multiple bidders may be allowed to bid for less than
the quantity available. A reserve price established by the seller
may be used to restrict or select the bids that may win the auction
by finding the combination of bids for a particular quantity of an
item that meet or exceed the total reserve amount specified by the
seller. For example if a seller has three items that are to be
sold, bidders may be able to bid on one, two or all three of the
items, where the bidder specifies in the bid the number requested
and the corresponding bid price. The multi-auction service may
select a combination of bidders from several remote auction
services to be combined to meet the aggregate reserve proceeds
established by the seller. The seller may specify that any one item
exceeding the unit price as determined from the reserve price and
the available quantity, may be sold individually or the seller may
accept a combination of bids where higher than reserve and below
reserve bids in combination exceed the minimum average bid price.
Multiple bidders may also be successful in the Dutch auction format
where the bids decrease until the final bid price is determined.
These bids are replicated in a similar manner. The seller may
determine the closing process to be used in the auction where the
selection is based on a number of predefined closing types. The
selection may not necessarily be an active step by the seller if a
default mode of closing is a predefined or default method.
[0062] The means for determining of the multi-auction service
determines which remote auction services ate to be contacted at
step 124. This determination may be based on historical records or
known auction locations for similar items, or may be selected by
the seller. If the seller alone determines the remote auction
services to be involved in the auction process, the multi-auction
service would then simply perform those task associated with
replicating bids. If an item to be auctioned can be listed at step
130 under more than one category or with different descriptive
information, the item may be transmitted to the remote auction
service more than once where each occurrence is linked to each
other by the multi-auction service without causing the remote
auction service to perform any coordination functions. The item to
be auctioned may therefore be listed once at each remote auction
service, more than once in different categories on a remote auction
service or more than once in many categories on more than one
remote auction server.
[0063] The multi-auction service at this point contacts the remote
auction services to "list" the item for an upcoming auction. The
multi-auction service may use the information determined in the
prior steps to generate the descriptive information that is
included in the auction request. In the preferred computerized
embodiment of the system, the multi-auction service may communicate
with the remote auction services through the automated generation
of content that matches the input format for each of the remote
auction services to be contacted. In one embodiment, a user
emulation mode may be utilized to emulate the input of the seller
in a batch mode as if the seller provided it by "live" keyboard
entry. In more sophisticated systems that provide for automated
input of auction items and parameters, the data may be directly
transferred to the remote auction server in the form required by
that remote auction service selected, thereby bypassing the normal
interactive mode of providing content to the remote auction
service. In the preferred embodiment, the means for communicating
of the multi-auction service contacts each of the remote auction
services and relays (transmits) a record for a seller for the
remote auction service to process into its system at step 140. In
more sophisticated systems, the remote auction service typically
generates some type of confirmation number and indicia to identify
the item which may then be recorded in memory, file or other
storage media of the system by the multi-auction service and is
used for subsequent communications.
[0064] An item to be auctioned is identified at the remote auction
service by the submitting entity where this may refer to the
identity of the seller or the multi-auction service may supply
contact information indicative of the multi-auction service to the
remote auction service In the case where the item is listed on a
remote auction service several times under different nomenclature
where each of the references are traceable back to one item for
auction, the multi-auction service needs to track the bidding
activity to assure that while each appears to be a different item,
they are in fact replications of the same item and therefore there
can only be a single winning bid across all instances of the item
being offered.
[0065] The active auction for the item is started by the remote
auction services where the multi-auction service detects the bids
received by the remote auction service for the item or items at
step 144. The multi-auction service determines which of the remote
auction services are to receive replicated bids at step 150. The
bids are replicated at step 154 at the remote auction services that
were determined at step 150. The detection, determining and
replication steps are repeated until the end or close of the
auction at step 160. The detailed operation of the bidding through
closing process steps will be described more fully below.
[0066] A detailed flow of the bid process will now be described
with respect to FIG. 3 that describes how an Internet-based bid
replication process of the present invention would occur. In the
preferred embodiment of a computerized version of the system,
following the initial definition of the selling parameters of the
item by the seller to the multi-auction service (step 200), the
multi-auction service contacts each of the remote auction services
(210, and 212) that have been selected to auction the item as
previously described. Each of the remote auction services initiates
the auction independently of each other as if they had total
control of the auction process.
[0067] If the bidder 20 makes a bid at remote auction service 12
(step 220), the multi-auction service 30 detects the bid (step 222)
by watching each of the items being auctioned by each of the remote
auction services to detect when a bid occurs on that item. In the
preferred embodiment, this detection may be based on the reception
of a message generated by the remote auction service whenever the
item receives a bid. This message may be an email notification
message, a phone call, instant message to a web browser, a pager
message or any other type of communication generated from the
remote auction service. Alternatively the detection may be based
upon data updates at the remote auction service, where the update
reflects a change in the bid amount that is detectable remotely by
the multi-auction service. The multi-auction service may use the
functionality provided by the remote auction service where a bid
causes current bidders or the seller to be notified of bids for the
item. If the remote auction does not support this type of
notification process the multi-auction service may periodically
request a refresh of the bid information for the item. In this
manner, a plurality of virtual connections may be established
between the remote auction service (web site for Internet-based
auctions) for each item's web page and the multi-auction service,
wherein response to a request for a refresh of the page contents,
the remote auction service prepares and sends the response
containing the remote current bid information. Upon receipt, the
multi-auction service may parse the content received to determine
if a change in the bid has occurred as compared to the known bid by
the multi-auction service. If more than one bid is detected with
the same bid value such that a tie occurs, a priority scheme is
used to determine which bid is the optimal bid. The priority scheme
would determine an optimal bid that must be selected from bids at
the same price level using a combination of any or all of a set of
criteria (time stamp, performance statistics of the tied bidders,
credit rating, form of payment or other ancillary costs, etc) In a
simplified embodiment, this priority scheme checks the time stamp
of the bid as stored by the remote auction service. This time stamp
is compared between each of the bids having the same bid value to
determine which bid is the first received. A local table may be
used to synchronize times for each remote service where the time
reported is compared to a local standard and the differences or
offsets are used to normalize the times such that they are adjusted
to one standard. This standard time is used to determine which bid
is the first bid received. A correction request may be submitted to
the remote auction services representing tied bidders, other than
the first received, to modify the current required next bid to the
bidding level determined by the multi-auction service or the multi
auction service may place a slightly higher bid on these remote
auction services in order to "break the tie". if this functionality
is not supported, the multi-auction service records the true actual
bidder that has the current high value based on this time analysis.
This type of reconciliation would not be critical in the middle of
the auction, but is significant at the end of the auction and will
be addressed during the description of the closing process.
[0068] The system can operate where the multi-auction service
responds immediately to a message from the remote auction services
that a bid has been received and the multi-auction service contacts
each of the remote auction services to replicate the optimal
detected bid, or the multi-auction service may communicate with
each of the remote auction services to retrieve the current bid for
the item to identify the optimal bidder from those pending bids
prior to replicating that optimal bid. In either case, this optimal
bid is then replicated at each of the remote auction service sites
except at the remote auction service where the optimal bid
originated. In the Dutch auction format, more than one bid detected
at more than one remote auction service may need to be replicated
across remote auction services.
[0069] In one embodiment, the multi-auction service periodically
communicates with each of the selected remote auction services
where the period is a function of the activities occurring at the
auction being executed by the remote auction service. Such
activities can include, but are not limited to, some or all of the
following: time remaining in the auction, number of active bidders
and frequency of bidding activity, proximity of bid level to a
"sudden death" price, current bidding increment, and price level of
the item. For example, when the period is based on the time
remaining to the close of the auction, the multi-auction service
may contact each remote auction service less frequently if there is
no or intermittent bidding activity on the item. If the bidding is
not scheduled to close for a prolonged period of time, the period
may be longer. Alternatively, the period may be changed dynamically
if an increased bidding activity is detected to increase the
frequency of detection and replication at all or at some of the
remote auction services. The multi-auction service 30 may contact
all of the remote auction services, or may select a modified group
of these services such as those that did not receive a bid or those
that have been recently active, to receive a replicated bid based
on that initially detected bid.
[0070] Following the detection event, the bid information may be
stored locally in a database 32 associated with the multi-auction
service 30. This bidder information is necessary since the system
may be required to supply information on the bidder to the remote
auction service that ultimately processes the closing bid or to the
Seller. This information is also useful in the case that the
optimal or winning bidder fails to complete the close of the
auction, in order to identify the next optimal bidder who could
then be contacted to close the auction of the item.
[0071] In the preferred embodiment, since a plurality of remote
auction services require that the bidder be registered prior to
bidding, the multi-auction service may establish a plurality of
user accounts on each of the remote auction services that may be
used by the multi-auction service to replicate bids at those sites.
The replication of the bid may be in the bidders name, sellers
name, a third party name or may merely indicate that an "away bid"
has been received without specifying the exact source. These
accounts will be referred to as proxy representatives. These proxy
representatives may then be managed by the multi-auction service to
allow bids to be placed on the various remote auction services.
[0072] Prior to replication, the bidder name, contact information
(typically bidder's email identifier, but may include more detailed
information such as the network port address if available or other
indicia that may become available as technology advances and
network components provide more detailed user identification data),
and remote auction service identifier (may include node address,
name, port, network identifier) are stored in memory as the auction
progresses. The processor of the multi-auction service may develop
a table of users (bidders and sellers) as items are bid on and
offered for sale. The bidder identification information may
additionally be compiled into a consolidated database of system
users that is used in subsequent references to the user. Bids
received for new items may then reference this consolidated table
to streamline the data gathering and bidding process. Users may
additionally be permitted to supply preference information that can
be used by the multi-auction service to contact bidders when items
having information related to their preferences are offered for
auction by the multi-auction service or its clients.
[0073] Bidders of this system may or may not know that their bids
are being reflected at different remote auction services using
different proxy representatives. The multi-auction service may
replicate the actual detected bidder information at the remote
auction service as an extension of part of the account name or
alternatively may use a system generated identifier or pseudonym to
submit the bid for a new bidder at a remote auction service in
accordance with the remote auction service's policies.
[0074] Referring back to FIG. 3, the multi-auction service 30
transmits a replicated bid to the remote auction service 14 at
(step 226, FIG. 3) in response to the detection event step 222. If
the remote auction service 14 has the item listed more than once
using different descriptive information as previously disclosed,
those bids are also updated to reflect the detected bid, as if the
duplicate listing occurred on a distinct remote auction service,
such that all of the remote auction services display the same bid
information for the item.
[0075] From the point of view of each remote auction service, the
bids all appear to be locally managed and processed exclusively by
that service. The local user bidding directly through that service
submits the bid using the means provided by this remote auction
service. Their bids appear directly on this service. After this bid
is detected and replicated on another remote auction service, if a
remote local bidder on a second remote auction service, seeing that
replicated bid from the first remote auction server decides to
submit a higher bid, this bid is detected by the multi-auction
service and is replicated back on the first remote auction service.
The actual method for submitting replicated bids that may be
performed by the multi-auction service may involve emulating the
entry of bid data as if the multi auction server were a "live"
bidder or formatting that submittal in another form recognizable at
the remote auction service. The identification data associated with
the replicated remote bid, that is then displayed on the first
remote auction service is associated with the multi-auction service
proxy representative. This bid also appears to be a local bid to
the first remote auction service which processes the bid in the
standard manner.
[0076] Bids may arrive or be placed in a plurality of "currencies"
where there is an equivalency table (either provided by the
multi-auction server, the Seller or the remote auction service) for
comparing bids. For example, a seller is offering a single item on
an auction site in the U.S. and a site in France. French bidders
are bidding francs while US bidders are bidding dollars. After the
multi-auction service collects the bids, the bids would all be
translated to a common unit (most likely dollars), compared and
then the optimal bid replicated back in the appropriate currency
for that site. The same method of comparison is used for
determining what the optimal/lowest bid is for the buyer. In an
extension of this system, bids may be placed not only in hard
currencies (dollars, francs, etc.) but also barter items. For
example, a bidder may bid an airplane flight, which would be
translated into dollars using a table so that it could be compared
to other barter or hard currency bids. Barter or trade items may
additionally be set as reserve values that may be published such
that a bidder may see them and provide them as a bid for the item.
In general tax effects could be considered as well. In the similar
manner the descriptive text of items may be adapted to be
translated by the multi-auction service such that either a bidder
or seller using the services provided may have their parameters or
item descriptions translated from one language into another to
either facilitate the specification of the parameters of an item to
be auctioned by a seller or purchased by a bidder. Alternatively,
users of the multi-auction service may select a language to have
auction items of interest converted such that they may review items
descriptions in a language of their choice.
[0077] Each of the remote auction services attempts to remotely
auction the item as if they exclusively offered it. As bids are
received for the item, the bid received is relayed to the
multi-auction service for the seller or alternatively, the
multi-auction service for the seller periodically contacts the
remote auction services to check if bids on the item have been
received. If the service finds that a bid has been received at the
remote auction service while the service is contacting the remote
locations to relay other bid information, the newly detected bids
are collected and compared to check which is optimal. If the newly
detected remote bid is higher than the current bid being
replicated, the service contacts the other remote auction services
with this new information. If the newly detected remote bid is
lower than the current bid being replicated by the multi-auction
service, the multi-auction service for the seller continues to
replicate the current bid at the other remote auction sites.
[0078] The optimal bid will usually be the highest for the seller
and lowest for the bidder, but can be something else under specific
circumstances controlled by the multi-auction service. For example,
the highest bidder may have a questionable credit rating or closing
history, or the highest bidder may be using a credit card so that
his bid needs to be adjusted downward by the processing fees. A
database of bidder performance statistics (closing rates,
timeliness, seller feedback, etc.) can be factored into the
"optimal bid" selection process in order to determine an adjusted
bid. When a buyer is using the multi-auction service to achieve an
optimal price that is the lowest price, the item offered with the
lowest bid may have excessive shipping charges or other ancillary
fees that may additionally need to be factored into the bid price
as an adjustment. In the preferred embodiment, these factors that
affect the bid are assessed during the bid process such that the
buyer and Seller are aware of the impact of these charges on the
ultimate bid price to be paid. The multi-auction service may adjust
for these factors in an automated or manual manner by requesting
this information when in a manual mode or by parsing or retrieving
corresponding data elements in a computer augmented mode of
operation.
[0079] The remote auction services in response to bids from the
multi-auction service, may update the posted bid price dynamically
on the items at that time of reception, or may indicate that a
change is pending for an auction item. This information is usually
not relayed to previous bidders unless they request current bid
information or to be notified if their bid is exceeded. In this
mode of operation when a bidder has not requested to be notified by
the remote auction service or the remote auction service does not
offer a notification service, a bidder must inquire to receive the
current bid of an item at the remote auction service. At that time,
the remote auction service looks up the most recent bid information
for that item and informs the bidder of the current bid.
[0080] The auction process continues until the auction is closed.
Several different methods may be employed to close the auction
where the end result is that one or several successful bidders are
informed that their bid was successful. In the preferred
embodiment, one of the selling parameters of the auction that a
seller may define is the method of ending the auction. If the
seller specifies that they may end the auction prior to the actual
closing date of the auction, the multi-auction service may control
the closing process where the remote auction services do not
perform the closing steps typically associated with prior art
auction methods. In this manner, the multi-auction service may
establish an actual closing date that is earlier that the closing
dates communicated to the remote auction services participating in
the auction. Users bidding on the item are informed that the
auction may close prior to the actual closing date due to other
circumstances or conditions of the auction. The circumstances may
be defined to the users participating in the auction or may only be
known to the multi-auction service and seller. One reason for
notifying the users of the alternate rules for closing would be to
prevent a flurry of bidding in the final moments of an auction
where bidders wait to submit a bid until just before the end of the
auction hoping to win with a low bid for the item. For example, if
bids are not received for an item for some period of time the
auction may close. In another type of conditional closing process,
a price or proceeds amount may be established such that the first
bidder to meet or exceed that price or amount wins the auction.
These types of conditional parameters allow for the control of the
auction to be managed by the multi-auction service.
[0081] In another embodiment of a closing process, assuming that
all of the remote auction services can be configured to allow the
closing to be determined by the seller, the seller may specify or
the multi-auction server may specify that one of the remote auction
locations actually know the closing parameters of the auction. For
example, if this controlling remote auction service is given the
actual closing date of the auction, when the close of the auction
occurs at that site, the winning bid is replicated by the
multi-auction service and the auction is closed at each of the
remote auction sites. The multi-auction service could additionally
act as this controlling remote action service.
[0082] The following are some of the possible closing events that
may be implemented in this invention
[0083] (a) fixed time expires;
[0084] (b) period of inactivity;
[0085] (c) first bid to exceed either a published or secret "sudden
death". This "sudden death" price is different than a reserve price
in that the auction can close at a lower price if the sudden death
price is not reached--the sudden death price relates only to a
price level that will cause the auction to close before its
otherwise scheduled close;
[0086] (d) auction type (c) with a decreasing "sudden death" price
over time.
[0087] Any particular auction can combine these types as well. For
example, type "c" may have a type "b" close if the "sudden death"
price is not reached.
[0088] In another embodiment, the remote auction services
cooperatively interoperate with the multi-auction service and
provide automated feedback to the multi-auction service as the
auction progresses. The remote auction services notify the
multi-auction service whenever bids are received. The multi-auction
service provides coordination data on the closing time of auctions
where the remote auction services are notified of the closing time
from the multi-auction service dynamically. Any pending bids
received prior to that closing time are retrieved or received by
the multi-auction service to be compared to each other. The winning
bid notice is sent to the remote auction service where the optimal
bidder was located. The seller arranges for the transfer of the
item with the winner. In this mode, the seller may provide a
commission to the remote auction service that had the winning
bidder, or alternatively, all participating remote auction services
will share a portion of the commission. Other commission payment
methods may be optionally arranged prior to the auction by the
multi-auction service. The multi-auction service may receive
payment for the service provided from the seller, where the payment
received is further distributed to the site where the winning
bidder was found, or alternatively where each of the sites that
participated would receive a payment proportional to the quantity
of bids processed at or above the reserve price.
[0089] If one of the bidders fails to acquire the item bid for, the
multi-auction service provides notification to the seller where the
seller determines how the matter will be settled, if he has not
already specified a method as part of the selling parameters for
the item or items. In one embodiment, the seller contacts the
multi-auction service to request the next optimal bidder.
[0090] Since the auction will be closed at one or more of the
remote auction services, and each remote auction service will
attempt to arrange the end of the auction, there may be some delay
following the end of the auction to identify the actual winning
bidder(s). In the case of a winning bid by a local bidder at the
close of the auction, the remote auction service attempts to notify
the seller of the winning bidder information according to prior art
methods. When the seller is represented by the multi-auction
service, the multi-auction service receives the optimal bidder
information from the remote auction service and forwards this
information to the seller or proceeds to process fulfillment of the
order if the Seller has arranged for fulfillment services. The
seller or multi-auction service in turn contacts the optimal bidder
and attempts to arrange for shipment and payment for the item. When
the winning bid on a remote auction service is a replicated bid
placed by the multi-auction service, the multi-auction service will
be informed that one of its nominees is the winning bidder and will
ignore that particular winning bid.
[0091] In another embodiment where the closing times are remotely
controlled in close synchronicity to each other, as one of the
remote auction services indicates the close of the auction, this
message is detected and processed by the multi-auction service. If
at substantially the same time, other auction sites close that have
different best bidders than the first to report the close, the last
fully coordinated bidder is notified that they are the winning
bidder. The auction is provisionally closed unless the last
replicated bidder fails to complete the purchase. At this point the
multi-auction service may review the optimal bidder data received
from all of the remote services to select the next optimal bid.
Other options may alternatively be chosen by the system where other
than the last successfully replicated bidder may be the winning
bidder. Since the multi-auction service may be the only site that
knows the actual seller identification data, no other remote
services may directly contact the seller. The multi-auction service
can determine the identification information of each of the remote
bidders that submitted acceptable bids at the various remote
auction service after the closing was indicated at the first remote
auction service. The multi-auction service can therefore override
the winning bid at the remote auction locations by sending the
losers email or other communications specifying that their bids
appear to be unacceptable, but that they may be informed within the
immediate future if their bid is accepted. This notification may
occur in the case where an otherwise optimal bidder previously
identified does not complete the purchase. In another embodiment,
the optimal bidder is determined by contacting each of the remote
auction sites in succession to determine the optimal bidder at that
time.
[0092] The bids stored in memory of the multi-auction service
during the bidding process may be used in subsequent historical
analyses of the bids received to aid in implementing future
auctions coordinated by the multi-auction service. This information
may be statistically analyzed to determine the remote auction
services that have the most activity for a class of items, such
that only those remote auction services that have significant
activity or have provided winning bidders are used in following
auctions for similar items. The historical data may also be
analyzed to determine the best time of the year, month, week or day
to begin and end auctions for a particular type of item.
Descriptive information included by the seller may be analyzed to
determine the best descriptive text yielding the best closing bid
for prior sellers offering similar items for auction. The best
descriptive text may be used by the system when a seller offers new
items for sale. In one embodiment, the seller is provided with
suggested text for the item description that the seller may use as
provided, or the seller may modify the suggested text. The seller
may additionally view stored images of items previously auctioned
that yielded the best bids to assist them in preparing their item
for auction.
[0093] The multi-auction service may use historical records to
determine how similar objects have sold to determine the best
manner to sell an item submitted by a seller. Seasonal items for
example such as generators or snow removal equipment sell at higher
prices before or soon after the season begins.
[0094] The multi-auction service accesses a memory location which
may comprise a file system or computer memory to access those
historical records that identify the best times of the year to sell
items of that type. The system might be able to use the seller's
reserve price to identify the earliest time or statistically best
timeframe for a seller to place an item for auction. The historical
records may also be used to search for similar products sold to
select the best description for the products that statistically
return the optimal auction prices. The seller's item would then be
given a similar description. The seller may therefore query the
history through the multi-auction service prior to submitting an
item for auction to choose the best parameters for the auction of
the item.
[0095] A seller from a seller computer may contact the
multi-auction service 30 via an Internet connection, where a user
interface to the multi-auction service 30 is provided for the
seller to enter selling parameters of the item to be auctioned.
Alternatively, Sellers may interface with the multi-auction server
via other electronic or manual methods. In the preferred
embodiment, the sellers that use this system will be recurring
sellers that have products for auction in an ongoing manner, though
any seller may use this system. Recurring sellers may subscribe to
the multi-auction service is where a portion of the subscription
payment is directed to the participating remote auction services
that allow the multi-auction service to cooperatively function in
this modes as previously described. This type of revenue sharing
facilitates the coordination aspects of the invention where the
multi-auction service is permitted to execute the closing process
to determine the winner of the auction where the multi-auction
service then contacts the remote auction services to inform them of
the winning bidder. In another version of this invention the remote
auction services may transmit the bids received to the
multi-auction service before posting the optimal bid locally in
response to a confirmation message or replication message from the
multi-auction service. The remote auction service may store the bid
received on their transaction log and display the bid progression
for the auction locally, but the optimal bidder will be the bidder
as determined by the multi-auction service.
[0096] In the preferred embodiment, a network of ancillary business
partners are coordinated through the system such that appraisers
are provided to assure the quality of the item to be auctioned.
Shipping and handling partners may also be established to
facilitate and standardize on the methods of shipping the items to
be auctioned from the seller to the winning bidder(s). Warehousing
partners may be used to temporarily store items to be auctioned and
facilitate distribution by the multi-auction service.
[0097] When network traffic causes delays in the connection or
access to bid information held by remote auction services, the
multi-auction service may analyze the times of each bid and other
information received at the remote auction sites to determine the
optimal in the case of a tie. If no tie exists, the multi-auction
service may replicate bids as previously disclosed for the optimal
bid received. If one or several of the auctions closed remotely
when network problems existed, one of the closing processes
previously disclosed may be used to reconcile the bidding.
[0098] A tie can occur if a plurality of bidders enter the same bid
on the same item at different remote auction services (or instances
of the item on the same remote auction service) between
multi-auction/remote auction service bid detection times. In this
case, the optimal bidder must be selected from bidders who have
placed bids at the same price level using a combination of any or
all of criteria comprising time stamp, performance statistics of
the tied bidders, credit rating, form of payment or other ancillary
costs. Other factors may also be used to reconcile the tie. This
optimal bidder will be replicated on all remote auction services
other than those that have received an identical bid not selected
as the optimal bid. In one embodiment, on those remaining remote
auction services where the tied bid is not selected as the optimal
bid, the bid at that location will be increased to a level even
higher than the optimal selected bid in order to "knock out" the
tied bidders who were not selected. This tiebreaker bid will be
placed in the name of one of the proxy representatives and
therefore will not represent a bonafide local bidder from the
sellers or remote auction service's perspective.
[0099] The data shown in FIGS. 5-9 do not necessarily reflect the
time of the bid or the order of bids received at each remote
auction service but offered to describe the replication process.
For example, in a standard auction format without ties (see FIG.
5), remote auctions services 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are participating in the
auction of an item. Bidders A, B, C are bidding at Auction 1;
bidders D, E, F are bidding at Auction 2, bidders G, H, I are
bidding at Auction 3, bidder J is bidding at Auction 4, and no one
is bidding at Auction 5. The multi-auction service could
additionally be included as an auction participant if bidders were
bidding from that service.
[0100] In this example the multi-auction service does not replicate
all bids, but instead periodically replicates bids by identifying
the optimal bid at the bid detection time At the detection time,
the multi-auction service contacts each of the remote auction
services, (Auction 1-5) to determine the optimal bid. If bidder D
(302) had the optimal bid at that point in time, the multi-auction
service would contact each of the other remote auction services (1,
3, 4 and 5) to replicate the bid (304) made by D in the name of one
of its proxy representatives.
[0101] In the case when a tie exists at the time of the bid
detection by the multi-auction service (see FIG. 6), if it is
determined that bidder D (310) is the optimal bidder, the bid by D
would be replicated (314) at the other remote auction services
(Auctions: 3, and 5) as previously described since no tie was
detected at those remote auction services. In the preferred
embodiment, at Auctions 1,4, the bid by bidder D would be
replicated (318) with an indication that the bid of D is a tie but
was entered prior to the local bidders bid. The bid by D (318) is
shown with a (+) sign indicating that the value at that remote
auction service may have to be raised to the next higher
incremental value above the tied bid in order to be accepted. It is
anticipated that this incremental value may be coordinated such
that the increment is the same at all remote auction services. In
another embodiment, depending on the level of compatibility between
the remote auction service and the multi-auction service, other
indications of a tie may be placed on the bid such as where the
replicated bid has its color changed, or the bid flashes on the
screen or the bid increment is less than the minimum increment that
the remote auction services will permit from regular bidders.
[0102] The bid replication methodology additionally changes the way
Dutch auctions work. In a normal Dutch auction held at one remote
auction service the following occurs: (1) A seller list an item for
sale, the item quantity (say 100) and the starting bid (Say $10);
(2) Buyers bid on a quantity and price they are willing to pay.
Once all 100 items have received a bid of $10.00, the new minimum
bid increases, say to $11.00; (3) At the close of the auction, the
top 100 bids win at the price bid by the marginal/lowest bidder. In
its most straightforward embodiment, the present invention will
enable a seller to run parallel Dutch auctions simultaneously on
multiple remote auction locations. For example, if there are 100
items offered on each of 5 sites, there appears to be 500 items
available when a marginal bidder bids an amount and quantity on any
one remote auction service site, this bid will be replicated on the
others, rendering bidders who would have cleared the market
considering bids on the replicatee site alone obsolete. At the
close of the Dutch Auctions, each Dutch auction will still sell 100
items. However, some of sales will be to actual bidders and the
balance will be to proxy representatives representing the
multi-auction service. When all the auction winners are combined
across sites, there will be 100 local bidders in aggregate that
will be expected to take delivery of the items. If the bidder is
also a client of the multi-auction service, the multi-auction
service will bid on items across multiple Dutch auctions without
regard to whether the particular auction represents a unique
auction or a replicated auction since there is no difference.
[0103] FIG. 7 displays a table of bids received in a Dutch auction
format for 100 available items prior to replication by the
multi-auction service. If the auction were executed independently
without the multi-auction service, if the auction was to close,
bidders A, B, C would be filled at $80 if the auction were held
exclusively at remote auction service 1; bidders D, E, F would
purchase the items at $75 at remote auction service 2 if that
service were chosen to host the auction; and bidders G,H, and I
would receive their full order at $65 and bidder L would receive
only a partial order to fill the 100 available items if the auction
were held at remote auction service 3 exclusively. With replication
by the multi-auction service, the auction can be held
simultaneously at all three locations. The results of the auction
are shown in FIG. 6. The highest bids of bidders A, D, G are
replicated at the other sites 320, 322, and 324, such that the
winners may be distributed across different remote auction services
to fill the quantity available according to the prices and
quantities offered. In this example bidders A and G would receive
their full offer quantity and bidder D would only receive 20 items
of the 40 requested. All would pay the accepted optimal bid,
generating significantly more proceeds for the Seller than running
the auction at any one of the remote service locations
exclusively.
[0104] In the case of a tie in the Dutch auction format, ties can
occur both within a remote auction service or across remote auction
services. Ties only matter when there is not sufficient quantity to
fill all orders placed at the tied bidders price level. Thus, a tie
is not critical unless it involves multiple bidders at the marginal
bidders price level. Ties at the marginal acceptable price are
typically resolved by ranking the bidders from highest to lowest
with respect to quantity bid and then filling orders each order
completely until the quantity is exhausted. However, other schemes
such as prorating based on bid quantity or time precedence are
possible. When two marginal bids are both for the same price level
and quantity, time precedence is typically used, but prorating is
also possible.
[0105] When the multi-auction service encounters a tie at the
marginal bid level between bidders, it will select the set of
Optimal Bids to fill. Tied bidders will be notionally allocated
items based on the various schemes outlined in the previous
paragraph. The bid replication methodology is identical to that in
the standard Dutch auction, except that the bids of the selected
tied bidders may be incremented by one remote auction service price
increment 320 prior to any required replication at those remote
auction locations where non-selected tied bidders have placed bids
(see FIG. 9). Alternatively, the other tie-breaking methodologies
previously discussed may be employed. This effectively knocks out
the tied bidders who have not been selected at their respective
remote auction services by giving them an indication that they need
to raise their price level by one increment in order to succeed in
the auction. In this example, bidder A has the highest bid, so that
bid would be replicated (A.sup.Rep) 342 according to the processes
described referring to Dutch auctions without ties. Bidder G was
determined to be the tied bidder that had a priority over bidder D,
therefore bidder G would have their bid replicated 340 with the
incremented value ($95+) at the bidder D remote auction server
(Auction 2). The other sites where bidder G's bid is replicated
(G.sup.Rep) 344 do not indicate the incremental value, but instead
their bids may be replicated in the order that the multi-auction
service determines. Since bidder D would be the second order
(D.sup.Rep) at that price, bidder D 346 would receive a partial
order of the items bid upon at the close of the auction.
[0106] The bid replication methodology can also help Sellers
increase the price they receive in auctions in the Virtual Buyers
Cooperatives format (e.g. Mercatta, Accompany and Act Big auction
formats). These auctions are similar to Dutch auctions in that
there are multiple identical items available and they will all
ultimately be sold at the lowest price that clears the market. In
these auctions, unlike Dutch auctions, the quantity of items
available is not pre-fixed but rather a function of the level of
bidding activity and the prices bid. Bidders place bids for the
maximum price they would pay for a quantity of the items. As more
and more bidders do this, in some cases the "published price" drops
to reflect an aggregate quantity discount appropriate to the
aggregate volume of bids across all bids. The market clears at a
price acceptable to the seller which reflects this aggregate
quantity as if the buyers were banded together to increase their
market power. Using the bid replication methodology, a seller can
run simultaneous auctions at different locations, aggregating
buyers across those locations to either sell the same quantity of
items at a higher price than would be achieved at a single
location, or alternatively, sell a higher quantity of items than
would otherwise be sold at a single location.
[0107] The multi-auction server's bid replication methodology helps
buyers in reverse auctions in a way analogous to the way it helps
Sellers in normal auction formats. In a normal reverse auction, the
buyer describes the item they wish to purchase. Criteria may be
inputted such as maximum price (similar to a reverse reserve
price), or the buyer may list no criteria. The sellers then have an
opportunity to offer the item competitively in a format analogous
to a bidder bidding on the item. The buyer can accept or reject the
offer. In reverse auctions, the buyer would be the client of the
multi-auction service and the multi-auction service would list the
buyer's request on multiple reverse auction sites. This will expand
the visible universe of sellers who will see and offer the item.
When a particular seller on a particular site offers on the item,
the multi-auction service will use the bid replication
methodologies previously discussed to duplicate his marginally
lower offer on the other remote auction services, driving down the
price for the buyer in all contemporaneous auctions. The bid
replication methodology brings the same advantages to the buyer in
stand and Dutch reverse auctions as it does to the seller in
standard and Dutch auction formats. The auction parameters are
similar to those established by a seller (e.g. there can be a
reserve price, sudden death price, etc . . . ).
[0108] The multi-auction service provides through an Internet-based
interface comprehensive reporting and auction status functionality
where the seller or buyer may for example, interactively affect the
current auction by accepting the current bid or offer and
immediately closing the auction. The statistics on the bid history
may be reviewed in real time to determine frequency of bids or
identify bidding anomalies where the bid history is presented in
graphical or textual format. Processes executing on the
multi-auction service generate the graphical content from the bids
stored in the database where all bids detected by this system or
optionally only the optimal bids may be recorded.
[0109] The system may collect "market data" on losing as well as
winning bidders so that targeted e-mail advertising may be directed
to the "losers" or the winners of bids. For example, the
multi-auction service could send a losing bidder an e-mail saying
"We noticed you did not win the auction for the item sought, but
there are other identical items available for auction at these
locations (or on sale at these retail web sites with which we have
negotiated referral fees), etc.". Alternatively, the system could
use the losing and winning E-mail addresses to form a mailing list
and send targeted E-mails of complementary products or sell the
list to other entities.
[0110] The multi-auction service may additionally comprise a local
auction functionality that bidders may access directly to specify
bidding rules for items. In this capacity, the multi auction
service will generate bids based on bidding activity detected at
various remote auction services and relay bids for items to remote
auction services (see FIG. 11). A bidder may utilize the system and
method of the present invention to allow the bidder 8 to place
orders for items to be acquired by one or more of a plurality of
remote auction services 12, 14, where the method comprises the
steps of the bidder specifying to the multi-auction service the
item type to be bid upon at step 300; the bidder specifying to the
multi-auction service the rules for bidding; the multi-auction
service determining which items at the remote auction services
match the bidder requested item at step 302 or the bidder supplying
this information directly; the multi-auction service periodically
checking each of the remote auction services at steps 310, 312 to
detect the current bids received at steps 318, 320, of all matching
items or to identify new items being auctioned; and the
multi-auction service selecting a matching item to bid on and
generating a bid at steps 322 or 326 for that matching item on the
remote auction service according to the bidder specified rules
stored in the memory means 32, such that at least one bid is active
or scheduled to be performed on one of the remote auction services
at any moment in time.
[0111] The method of the current invention may also be used to
coordinate the purchase of more than one of the target item. In
another version of the invention, relative value rules may be
established where a bidder is bidding on two or more similar but
not identical items and only wants a certain number. For example,
where there are 2 similar stereos and the bidder says "I will pay a
10% premium for stereo B over stereo A, but never more than $350
for either". The system will utilize this rule to identify and bid
on the items sought with the rule enforcing the bidding preference.
Based on the bids encountered the system may alternately bid on one
or the other item as the bids progress until the close of the
auction. Bidders may optionally define rules for the total price or
individual price not to be exceeded for multiple items for a
quantity desired such that the bidding is stopped by the
multi-auction service.
[0112] The bidder may contact the multi-auction service in any
manner. In the preferred embodiment, a user interface 400 is
provided for the bidder to describe parameters of the items to be
purchased (see FIG. 12). The bidder may select from a list of
available categorized item types 400 generated by the system or may
insert descriptive information of the item to be acquired. An
ending date and time for the bidding on this item type may be
specified by the bidder using a calendar-like interface 412, or a
default timeframe may be specified by the multi-auction server, or
open ended bidding maybe defined to end on successful acquisition
of the item. A maximum price 416 may be established if one or more
items are desired and the bidder may specify an average price for
the quantity desired 420 where the multi-auction service contacts
one or more remote auction services to place bids for one item, two
or more of the same items, or similar items where relative value
may be placed on the items searched for and bid upon. For example,
if the user prefers product manufactured by one manufacturer, the
user may specify that preference 422, whether the bidder will
accept near substitutes 424, and whether a premium 430 will be paid
for one brand or another. The user may specify bid strategies 440
where the strategies have been predetermined for the type of item
to be purchased or the user may alternatively define their own
rules and preferences for the bid processing in a free form rule
area 442 of the interface 400. The multi-auction service may
specify a format or supply examples of rules that may be selected
or entered by the bidder to allow the multi-auction service to
perform the actions associated with implementing the bidding rules.
The multi-auction service may additionally suggest optimum bid
values and bidding strategies based on historical records of
similar items sold from either an internal database 32 or from
available data retrieved from a remote auction service. For
example, as the data is input by the bidder for the type of object,
the historical records may be accessed to populate the data fields
with optimum values. When a user specifies the condition criteria
418 for example, the database would be searched to identify similar
items sold recently and populate a display area 450 with the
results. Additionally, the optimum values may automatically
populate the bidder input fields of the user interface where the
automatically populated values may be overridden by the bidder. The
historical data may optionally be displayed graphically in a chart
form showing the normal distribution of final bids based on the
strategies used or upon the condition factor of the item. Charts
may additionally be prepared indicating the probability of success
based on the bidder-defined rules and input values. In the
preferred embodiment, the user may indicate a position on the chart
to automatically determine rules and strategies to be applied that
would determine the best set of conditions to win an auction at a
target bid price.
[0113] The steps performed by the multi-auction service will now be
described with respect to flow diagram of FIG. 13. Once the bidder
defines the item(s) to be bid upon at step 600, the multi-auction
service may review the history database to identify similar items
at step 610 and to define optimum bidder parameters at step 612. In
addition to the interactive method of defining the item to be bid
upon, the multi-auction service may receive requests for bids in
other manners where the multi-auction service determines the best
parameters without user interaction based on the data received and
the historical information retrieved. The multi-auction service
then reviews the plurality of remote auction services to determine
the best sites to search for items at step 614. In the preferred
embodiment, the system determines which remote auction services to
contact based on prior history for that type of item. Search
technologies such as spiders that can find exact or similar items
on a variety of auction sites, or a buyer's expressed preferences
will be utilized to perform the actual search at step 620. A
universal natural language search utility is supported so that
users do not need to be experts of the search utilities utilized by
the various remote service auctions to find the best item matches.
Alternatively, the multi-auction server may use third party search
facilities to identify objects being auctioned. The system may
review the bidding history of the bidders involved in a particular
auction at a remote auction service to determine from past bidding,
how likely these bidders are to win. At step 630 the multi-auction
service then tracks items matching the item type sought and then
compares the items found to the bidder parameters at step 640. The
multi-auction service can perform additional analysis on the bid
history for that item and review prior bid history by current
bidders at step 644 on other objects to determine whether the
competing bidders are operating under control of a programmed
bidding strategy where the maximum bid for the bidder may be
determined from their prior bid activity. In some auctions, bidders
wait until the final seconds to bid for items of a particular type
where that is the only bid made. The multi-auction service may
identify the potential for this type of bidding by reviewing the
history of other auctions. The multi-auction service may recommend
that the bidder forego bidding on items where current bidders tend
to drive prices above the multi-auction bidder specified value
maximum price where the top final bid is predicted to be higher the
bidders specified maximum bid.
[0114] The detection process disclosed for the seller may be used
in a similar manner for bidders at step 630 where the remote
auction service is contacted by the multi-auction service to
determine the remote auction services that have the lowest or
optimal value for an item. The multi-auction service then
determines which item to bid upon at step 650 and transmits a bid
for that item to the remote auction service at step 654. The
multi-auction service cannot strictly find the remote auction
services with the lowest bid price, since it is likely that the
bidding for that item has just begun. It is better to find the
optimal low bids where the auction is about to end and to bid at
those remote auction services. The multi-auction service checks the
bidding of each item of interest that matches the user defined
rules and preferences. If the bids exceed the bidder specified
limits stored in a database of rules, that item and site is no
longer checked by the multi-auction service and is removed from the
tracked items unless a new item comes up for auction that matches a
buyer's buying profile. In addition to the automated methods of
placing bids the bidder may place manual bids on items at any time
at step 660.
[0115] The multi-auction service of the present invention
additionally provides comprehensive interactive monitoring tools to
track bids in progress across multiple remote auction service. The
intelligent identification process used to categorize items by type
for sellers may be used by bidders to assist in the identification
of items in pending auctions. The system may provide suggestions to
the users as the bidding progresses or the system may implement
expert-based tactical bidding strategies that allow for unattended
bidding. For example, an Internet-based interface 500 may be
provided for the bidder 8 such that the bidder (Jon) can view his
selected item type 502, and the rules in force 510 and the selected
remote auction service items 520 being tracked (see FIG. 14). The
content for active auctions 520 may comprise an item description
524 which may provide a link to the description of the displayed
object, or alternatively may provide a thumbnail image of the item
replicated from the remote auction service. A separate reduced size
depiction of all of the items being tracked may also be appended to
the bottom of the interface such that the user may review them
locally without navigating to the remote auction service 526. The
parameters of the auction may include for example, the closing date
530 and time remaining 532, current bid 534 (current bid with total
bid costs), and remote seller parameters 538. The remote seller
data typically might indicate shipping costs or timeframes and may
apply other restrictions on the auction. The current bidder
information is additionally displayed and comprises the Bidder ID
540, and any bidder notes 546 that may be determined by the
multi-auction server restrictions to assist in defining the manner
in which the bidder operates. For example, the win percentage 550
may be calculated based on how often that bidder wins when bidding
on similar or other types of items. In another example, the remote
bidder 22 may be identified as a low bidder that bids late on items
where low bid activity has taken place. The bidder may be able to
select a bid button 552 to indicate that they would like to
manually execute a bid for an item. The user may modify the rules
556 at any point in the bidding process. Additionally the system
may indicate the next bid to be performed 560 as selected according
to the strategy 440 and rules 442 as were specified by the bidder
(see FIG. 11).
[0116] In the preferred embodiment, any other type of user
interface may be provided that shows substantially similar content
such that the bidder may view the activity of the bids, change bid
strategy, or place bids for the items shown. Preferably the
interface 500 is active such that any changes in the bids are
immediately reflected in the form without the bidder having to
manually refresh the form.
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