Method and system to publish a proxy bid and a reserve price

• US 20050065866A1
• Filed: 12/30/2003
• Published: 03/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Grove, Brian Alan, Grove, Steve, Sandler, Andrew Leigh, Edson, Zak
• Granted Patent: US 8,001,007 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A auction system includes an auction price-setting purchase process and a fixed price purchase process for purchasing a buyer'"'"'s proxy bid during an auction.

Claims

1. A network-based commerce system including:

a processor coupled to a memory through a bus; and

a fixed price-setting process executed from the memory by the processor to cause the processor to automatically publish at least one of a proxy bid information and a reserve price if a high proxy bid is less than the reserve price, the proxy bid information and the reserve price being associated with a listing for an item during a network-based auction price-setting process.

2. The network-based commerce system of claim 1, wherein the fixed price process further causes the processor to automatically unpublishing the proxy bid information upon the high proxy bid exceeding the reserve price.

3. The network-based commerce system of claim 1, wherein the fixed price process further causes the processor to facilitate a request for an adjustment of a fixed price offer associated with a seller of the listing for the item, the request to be sent to the seller.

4. The network-based commerce system of claim 1, wherein the publication is performed during the auction price-setting process.

5. The network-based commerce system of claim 1, wherein the publication is performed after the auction price-setting process.

6. The network-based commerce system of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically notifying a buyer when the reserve price is published.

7. The network-based commerce system of claim 1, wherein the fixed price-setting process further causes the processor, when publishing to publish for view by a specific buyer only.

8. The network-based commerce system of claim 1, wherein the fixed price-setting process further causes the processor, when publishing to display the maximum bid amount a buyer is willing to bid to purchase an item on the listing.

9. A network-based commerce system including:

a means for automatically publishing at least one of a proxy bid information and a reserve price if a high proxy bid is less than the reserve price, the proxy bid information and the reserve price being associated with a listing for an item during a network-based auction price-setting process; and

a means for storing the listing.

10. The network-based commerce system of claim 9, further comprising:

a means for automatically unpublishing the proxy bid information upon the high proxy bid exceeding the reserve price.

11. The network-based commerce system of claim 9, further comprising:

a means for facilitating a request for an adjustment of a fixed price offer associated with a seller of the listing for the item, the request to be sent to the seller.

12. The network-based commerce system of claim 9, wherein the publication is performed during the auction price-setting process.

13. The network-based commerce system of claim 9, wherein the publication is performed after the auction price-setting process.

14. The network-based commerce system of claim 9, further comprising:

a means for automatically notifying a buyer when the reserve price is published.

15. The network-based commerce system of claim 9, wherein the publishing includes publishing for view by a specific buyer only.

16. The network-based commerce system of claim 9, wherein publishing includes displaying the maximum bid amount a buyer is willing to bid to purchase an item on the listing.

17. A machine-readable medium having instructions to cause a machine to perform a method to facilitate operation of a network-based commerce system, the method including:

automatically publishing at least one of a proxy bid information and a reserve price if a high proxy bid is less than the reserve price, the proxy bid information and the reserve price being associated with a listing for an item during a network-based auction price-setting process.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising:

automatically unpublishing the proxy bid information upon the high proxy bid exceeding the reserve price.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising:

facilitating a request for an adjustment of a fixed price offer associated with a seller of the listing for the item, the request to be sent to the seller.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the publication is performed during the auction price-setting process.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the publication is performed after the auction price-setting process.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising:

automatically notifying a buyer when the reserve price is published.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the publishing includes publishing for view by a specific buyer only.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein publishing includes displaying the maximum bid amount a buyer is willing to bid to purchase an item on the listing.

25. A method to facilitate operation of a network-based commerce system, the method including:

automatically publishing at least one of a proxy bid information and a reserve price if a high proxy bid is less than the reserve price, the proxy bid information and the reserve price being associated with a listing for an item during a network-based auction price-setting process.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

automatically unpublishing the proxy bid information upon the high proxy bid exceeding the reserve price.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

facilitating a request for an adjustment of a fixed price offer associated with a seller of the listing for the item, the request to be sent to the seller.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the publication is performed during the auction price-setting process.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the publication is performed after the auction price-setting process.

30. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

automatically notifying a buyer when the reserve price is published.

31. The method of claim 25, wherein the publishing includes publishing for view by a specific buyer only.

32. The method of claim 25, wherein publishing includes displaying the maximum bid amount a buyer is willing to bid to purchase an item on the listing.