Chris Payne
September 11, 2000
Before we go jumping to code and databases, let ' s take a moment and examine the needs and strategies, as
As the different types of auctions.
There are many different types of auctions (which we'll discuss in the next section)
You'll have to decide what your needs are, and adjust accordingly. I ' ll outline the needs for our auction
Here, and we'll reference these as we progress. The some definitions out of the way:
Buyer/bidder-the who places a bid, and wants to buy item.
Item/lot-one listing in the auction (can is several actual items, but'll be represented by one
Listing).
Proxy bidding-a buyer places A maximum bid to never is exceeded. The actual bid then is simply the last
Highest winning bid plus the minimum increment. The actual bid is increased automatically when outbid
Until the max is reached.
Seller-the who listed the item to be sold.
Winning bid-the price a buyer pays to win a item.
And now we assumptions:
"Second Price Auction:" Bidders could place proxy bids. The winners'll then end up paying the lowest
Winning bid for the item (s).
We only have allow single lots to be sold. This means we don't allow groups of lots to be sold together
(You won ' t is able to sell items A and B together). However, you can sell a bunch of items as one lot
(i.e pencils in lot A).
Once an auction was over, it was over. In some auctions, if a bid was placed within a certain amount of time
(i.e. 5 seconds) before the end of a auction, the auction is extended for some. We are not doing that
Here.
Number of items. In the "case" two people bid the same thing, the person who bid for more items would
Win, regardless of who bid. If Both buyers bid for the same number of items, the earliest bid would
Win.
Proxy bidding rounds. One round would be defined as the auction engine cycles through all users and
Adjusts bids accordingly, based on the current high bid and the buyer maximum ' s bid. A Round would commence
Once a buyer places a bid on a lot, and would proceed in the order the bids were. If at the end of
The round, a resolution is not achieved, we'll start over from the beginning.
There are also two other types of auctions that we are not with here, and but May is good for reference.
Winning Bid auction-the winning buyer gets the requested for the "price lots they. If there are
Multiple winners, everyone gets the price they bid.
Clear price auction-the winning buyers get the requested lots for the lowest winning.
Now so we ' ve outlined our needs, let's take a look at the database structure behind the auction.
