System and method for encouraging competitive participation in an auction

Abstract

In both an on-line and a conventional auction, an auctioneer may encourage competitive bidding behavior through the provision of rewards to those bidders whose bids meet predetermined criteria. For example, a bidder may be rewarded if her bid exceeds a prior bid by a threshold value. An auctioneer may further discourage non-competitive bidding behavior by penalizing those bidders whose bids fall below predetermined standards.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of rewarding desired bidding behavior in an auction for the sale of a product, the auction comprising a start time and an end time, and the auction comprising bidding data descriptive of bids that have been submitted in the auction and for the product, the method comprising:
 identifying, by an auction server, a plurality of bidders associated with the bidding data;   determining, by the auction server, a predetermined auction bidding condition stored in a database;   determining, by the auction server and by comparing the auction bidding data to the predetermined auction bidding condition, that a bidding behavior reward offer should be output;   selecting, by the auction server, at least one bidder from the plurality of bidders;   transmitting, by the auction server and to a device associated with the selected at least one bidder, the bidding behavior reward offer;   determining, by the auction server, that the at least one bidder accepts the bidding behavior reward offer; and   providing, via the auction server and to the at least one bidder, prior to the end time of the auction, a reward associated with the bidding behavior reward offer.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the identifying of the plurality of bidders comprises identifying a plurality of respective unique bidder identifiers associated with the bids that have been submitted in the auction. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the predetermined auction bidding condition comprises one or more of: (i) a condition that less than a threshold number of bids have been received in a certain time period; (ii) a condition that a high bid in the auction is below a predetermined threshold, and; (iii) a condition that the high bid in the auction is below the predetermined threshold after a certain amount of elapsed time of the auction. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the at least one bidder from the plurality of bidders is based on a determination that the at least one bidder satisfies a qualifying criteria. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, prior to the providing of the reward:
 determining, by the auction server, that the at least one bidder has satisfied a qualifying condition of the bidding behavior reward offer.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the qualifying condition of the bidding behavior reward offer comprises one or more of a condition that: (i) the at least one bidder submits a bid within a predetermined threshold amount of time after a submission of a previous bid; (ii) the at least one bidder submits a number of increasing magnitude bids exceeding a predetermined threshold; (iii) a bid by the at least one bidder exceeds a current high bid by a predetermined bid spread; and (iv) a bid by the at least one bidder is submitted after a predetermined amount of time since a previous bid was submitted. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the qualifying condition of the bidding behavior reward offer comprises a condition that one or more of: (i) the greatest bid in the auction exceeds a certain threshold; and (ii) the at least one bidder has participated in greater than a predetermined number of previous auctions. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selecting comprises a random selection. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reward comprises one or more of: (i) a supplement to a bid made by the at least one bidder; (ii) a unit of a different product; (iii) an amount of frequent flyer miles; (iv) a warranty for the product; and (v) a free shipment of the product. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reward is provided by a third-party. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 altering, based upon a request from the at least one bidder, the end time of the auction.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 rating the at least one bidder based on the at least one bidder's previous participation in auctions.   
     
     
         13 . A system, comprising:
 a processing device; and   a memory device in communication with the processing device, the memory device storing instructions that when executed by the processing device result in:
 identifying a plurality of bidders associated with the bidding data; 
 determining a predetermined auction bidding condition stored in a database; 
 determining, by comparing the auction bidding data to the predetermined auction bidding condition, that a bidding behavior reward offer should be output; 
 selecting at least one bidder from the plurality of bidders; 
 transmitting, to a device associated with the selected at least one bidder, the bidding behavior reward offer; 
 determining that the at least one bidder accepts the bidding behavior reward offer; and 
 providing, to the at least one bidder, prior to the end time of the auction, a reward associated with the bidding behavior reward offer. 
   
     
     
         14 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processing device result in:
 identifying a plurality of bidders associated with the bidding data;   determining a predetermined auction bidding condition stored in a database;   determining, by comparing the auction bidding data to the predetermined auction bidding condition, that a bidding behavior reward offer should be output;   selecting at least one bidder from the plurality of bidders;   transmitting, to a device associated with the selected at least one bidder, the bidding behavior reward offer;   determining that the at least one bidder accepts the bidding behavior reward offer; and   providing, to the at least one bidder, prior to the end time of the auction, a reward associated with the bidding behavior reward offer.