Continuous bidding portal

• US 10,453,121 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2016
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alliance Inspection Management, LLC
• Original Assignee: Alliance Inspection Management, LLC
• Inventors: Sweeder, Scott, Laing, Andrew, Widmer, Eric, Allen, Tammy
• Primary Examiner(s): Levine, Adam L
• Application Number:
  US15/250,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20170061529A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,149 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

An apparatus, system, method, and program product is disclosed for continuous bidding portal. A method includes posting a listing for an item for sale to a plurality of auction platforms. Each of the plurality of auction platforms incompatible with one another such that each auction platform is unable to communicate with a different auction platform. A method includes receiving a notification from an auction platform of the plurality of auction platforms in response to an auction event associated with the listing. A method includes updating information for the listing on one or more different auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms in response to receiving the notification.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

posting, at an auction management device, a listing for an item for sale to a plurality of auction platforms, the plurality of auction platforms comprising computing devices that are configured to host online auctions and that are incompatible with one another such that each auction platform is unable to independently communicate auction events with a different auction platform, the plurality of auction platforms comprising one or more continuous and a plurality of non-continuous bidding auction platforms, wherein;

a continuous bidding auction platform is configured to receive auction event information from the auction management device using a web service offered by the auction management device; and

a non-continuous bidding auction platform is not configured to receive auction event information from the auction management device using the web service offered by the auction management device;

receiving, at the auction management device, a notification from an auction platform of the plurality of auction platforms in response to an auction event associated with the listing, the notification comprising a bid notification for the item;

pushing, from the auction management device to one or more different continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms, bid information for the listing so that the bid information for the listing can be updated on the one or more different continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms in response to receiving the bid notification; and

sending an update, from the auction management device to one or more different non-continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms where the bid notification is not received from, to remove the listing from the one or more different non-continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms where the bid notification is not received from, in response to receiving the bid notification,

wherein, in response to the bid notification being received from a non-continuous bidding auction platform, the listing is maintained on the non-continuous bidding auction platform where the bid notification was received from while the listing is removed from the other non-continuous bidding auction platforms where the bid notification is not received from.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification from an auction platform comprises a bid for the listed item, the bid comprising a purchase amount for the item.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising selecting a bid of a plurality of bids received substantially at a same time from different auction platforms, the bid selected based on the time the notifications were received from the auction platforms.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising sending a notification to each auction platform associated with each bid that is not selected that a bid was rejected.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating the listing for the item, the listing comprising a description of the item, an initial bid price, an auction end time, a listing type and one or more selected auction platforms where the listing is posted.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising extending the auction end time by a predetermined time extension in response to receiving a bid within a predetermined time.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the end time for the auction is extendable up to a predetermined time period after the initial auction end time.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising associating a plurality of iterations with the listing, the plurality of iterations specifying a number of times the listing is listable at an auction platform.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising removing the listing from the plurality of auction platforms at the auction end time even if the listing has additional iterations at an auction platform.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the auction event comprises at least one of the listing expiring, the listing being removed, receiving a bid for the listing, and selling the listed item.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein notifications are sent and received using one or more different web services.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein notifications are formatted using one or more of extensible markup language (“

XML”

) and JavaScript Object Notation (“

JSON”

).

13. The method of claim 1, wherein an auction platform pulls updated auction information from a web service.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a memory that stores code executable by the processor to;

post, at an auction management device, a listing for an item for sale to a plurality of auction platforms, the plurality of auction platforms comprising computing devices that are configured to host online auctions and that are incompatible with one another such that each auction platform is unable to independently communicate auction events with a different auction platform, the plurality of auction platforms comprising one or more continuous and a plurality of non-continuous bidding auction platforms, wherein;

a continuous bidding auction platform is configured to receive auction event information from the auction management device using a web service offered by the auction management device; and

a non-continuous bidding auction platform is not configured to receive auction event information from the auction management device using the web service offered by the auction management device;

receive, at the auction management device, a notification from an auction platform of the plurality of auction platforms in response to an auction event associated with the listing, the notification comprising a bid notification for the item;

push, from the auction management device to one or more different continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms, bid information for the listing so that the bid information for the listing can be updated on the one or more different continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms in response to receiving the bid notification; and

send an update, from the auction management device to one or more different non-continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms where the bid notification is not received from, to remove the listing from one or more different non-continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms where the bid notification is not received from, in response to receiving the bid notification,

wherein, in response to the bid notification being received from a non-continuous bidding auction platform, the listing is maintained on the non-continuous bidding auction platform where the bid notification was received from while the listing is removed from the other non-continuous bidding auction platforms where the bid notification is not received from.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the notification from an auction platform comprises a bid for the listed item, the bid comprising a purchase amount for the item.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the code is further executable by the processor to:

select a bid of a plurality of bids received substantially at a same time from different auction platforms, the bid selected based on the time the notifications were received from the auction platforms; and

send a notification to each auction platform associated with each bid that is not selected that a bid was rejected.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the code is further executable by the processor to remove the listing for the item from an auction platform in response to receiving a bid for the item from a different auction platform and determine that the auction platform is a non-continuous bid action platform.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein notifications are sent and received using one or more different web services, the notifications formatted using one or more of extensible markup language (“

XML”

) and JavaScript Object Notation (“

JSON”

).

19. A program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores code executable by a processor, the executable code comprising code to perform:

posting, at an auction management device, a listing for an item for sale to a plurality of auction platforms, the plurality of auction platforms comprising computing devices that are configured to host online auctions and that are incompatible with one another such that each auction platform is unable to independently communicate auction events with a different auction platform, the plurality of auction platforms comprising one or more continuous and a plurality of non-continuous bidding auction platforms, wherein;

a continuous bidding auction platform is configured to receive auction event information from the auction management device using a web service offered by the auction management device; and

a non-continuous bidding auction platform is not configured to receive auction event information from the auction management device using the web service offered by the auction management device;

receiving, at the auction management device, a notification from an auction platform of the plurality of auction platforms in response to an auction event associated with the listing, the notification comprising a bid notification for the item;

pushing, from the auction management device to one or more different continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms, bid information for the listing so that the bid information for the listing can be updated on the one or more different continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms in response to receiving the bid notification; and

sending an update, from the auction management device to one or more different non-continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms where the bid notification is not received from, to remove the listing from the one or more different non-continuous bidding auction platforms of the plurality of auction platforms where the bid notification is not received from, in response to receiving the bid notification,

wherein, in response to the bid notification being received from a non-continuous bidding auction platform, the listing is maintained on the non-continuous bidding auction platform where the bid notification was received from while the listing is removed from the other non-continuous bidding auction platforms where the bid notification is not received from.