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Description  |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
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.
Glossary
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 prespecified a set of rules so that his agent can bid
automatically for him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
multi-auction service--System of people, computers and communications
systems that coordinate the auction listing, bid replication and auction
management process. Typically maintains history of item bids and offers,
and identifies categories for auction items. Provides means for bidders or
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.
optimal bidder--The optimal bidder 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 submitting winning bids.
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.
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.
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.
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 provide 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 site 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 site 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 performs 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. In
the case where more than one remote auction service receives a bid for the
item, 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.
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.
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.
Each of the plurality of bidders comprises means for bidding on the item to
be auctioned at one of the remote auction services.
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 bidder's preference for one or more identical,
or similar, items sought.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the prior art systems involved in
Internet-based auctions;
FIG. 2 is a diagram of the computing systems of the multi-auction service
system of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a diagram of the bid and replication process steps from the
seller's orientation of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the process steps for specifying and replicating
bids across a plurality of remote auction services;
FIG. 5 is a table of bids in a standard auction mode of the present
invention;
FIG. 6 is a table of bids in a standard auction involving tied bidders;
FIG. 7 is a table of bids in a Dutch auction prior to replication;
FIG. 8 is a table of bids in a Dutch auction after replication;
FIG. 9 is a table of bids in a Dutch auction involving tied bidders;
FIG. 10 is a representation of the components of the present invention;
FIG. 11 is a diagram of the bid and replication process steps from the
bidder's orientation of the present invention;
FIG. 12 is a representation of the user interface for the definition of
bidder parameters for the present invention;
FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of the process steps performed on behalf of a
bidder;
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Preferably the memory means 32 comp | | |
