Aggregation of on-line auction listing and market data for use to increase likely revenues from auction listings
First Claim
1. An auction listing analysis system comprising:
- an auction data mining system configured to extract auction listing data and auction progress data from a plurality of auction listings; and
an auction data processing system configured to receive the auction listing and progress data, the auction data processing system further configured to process the auction listing and progress data to identify relationships between auction listing data and auction outcomes.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A web crawling engine is configured to mine auction web sites for auction market data. On-line auction market data are aggregated for use in determining how to best list an item for sale through an on-line auction. The market data include listing options (e.g., duration, opening bid) as well as data descriptive of the auction'"'"'s progress (e.g., current bid). Auction market data can also be actively accumulated by actively listing items at auction, varying the listing options, and monitoring the same auctions. Data is analyzed to identify correlations between item listing options and desirable auction results, such as closing bid price. A multivariable curve fitting is performed based upon the accumulated data to create a function that yields auction revenue as a function of listing options. A set of options that corresponds to the maxima of this function is identified as an optimal set of listing options for a product.
130 Citations
26 Claims
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1. An auction listing analysis system comprising:
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an auction data mining system configured to extract auction listing data and auction progress data from a plurality of auction listings; and
an auction data processing system configured to receive the auction listing and progress data, the auction data processing system further configured to process the auction listing and progress data to identify relationships between auction listing data and auction outcomes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method comprising:
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identifying a set of auction listing variables;
identifying a plurality of auction listings;
for each of the plurality of auction listings, identifying values for each of the auction listing variables;
for each of the plurality of auction listings, identifying a closing price;
based at least upon the identified values and the closing prices for the plurality of auction listings, determining a function that yields an output value as a function of the set of auction listing variables; and
identifying a set of values for the auction listing variables that produces an extreme in the output value of the function. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26)
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14. A method comprising:
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identifying an item to be listed on an auction;
identifying a plurality of auction listings for items similar to the item to be listed;
for each of the identified auction listings, identifying auction options that were chosen by an auction seller;
monitoring the identified auction listings until auctions for the identified auction listings close; and
identifying relationships between auction options and closing prices based at least upon the identified auction options and the monitoring of the identified auction listings.
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18. A method comprising:
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identifying an item to be sold at auction;
identifying a plurality of auction marketplaces in which items similar to the item have been sold;
selecting an auction marketplace based at least upon at least one of current sales of items similar to the item in the marketplace, bidding activity related to the item, percentage gain in recent bids related to the item, and a number of bidders in auctions related to the item;
collecting auction listing data and auction progress data for auctions of items similar to the item within the auction marketplace;
analyzing the auction progress data to determine supply and demand; and
based at least upon the determined supply and demand, determining a rate at which to list a plurality of the item in successive auctions within the marketplace.
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23. A method comprising:
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listing a single item for sale in a plurality of auctions simultaneously;
collecting auction progress data during the plurality of auctions;
ranking the plurality of auctions based at least upon at least one of a current bid price, a number of bidders, and a percentage increase in a most recent bid; and
delisting the item from all but one of the auctions based at least upon the ranking.
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Specification