what is auction system?what it is basicaly about?

More Info About auction system


Your team has been given the responsibility to develop an online auction system that allows people to negotiate over the buying and selling of goods in the form of English-style auctions (over the Internet). The company owners want to rival the Internet auctioning sites, such as, eBay (ebay.com), and uBid (ubid.com). The innovation with this system is that it guarantees bid placed are solvent, making for a more serious marketplace.

All potential users of the system must first enroll with the system; once enrolled they have to log on to the system for each session. Then, they are able to sell, buy, or browse the auctions available on the system. Customers have credit with the system that is used as security on each and every bid. Customers can increase their credit by asking the system to debit a certain amount from their credit card.

A customer that wishes to sell initiates an auction by informing the system of the goods to auction with the minimum bid price and reserve price for the goods, the start period of the auction, and the duration of the auction, e.g., 30 days. The seller has the right to cancel the auction as long as the auction's start date has not been passed, i.e., the auction has not already started.

Customers that wish to follow an auction must first join the auction. Note that it is only possible to join an active auction. Once a customer has joined the auction, he/she may make a bid, or post a message on the auction's bulletin board (visible to the seller and all customers who are currently participants in the auction). A bid is valid if it is over the minimum bid increment (calculated purely on the amount of the previous high bid, e.g., 50 cent increments when bid is between $1-10, $1 increment between $10-50, etc.), and if the bidder has sufficient funds, i.e. the customer's credit with the system is at least as high as the sum of all pending bids. Bidders are allowed to place their bids until the auction closes, and place bids across as many auctions as they please. Once an auction closes, the system calculates whether the highest bid meets the reserve price given by the seller (English-style auction reserve price), and if so, the system deposits the highest bid price minus the commission taken for the auction service into the credit of the seller (credit internal with the system).




refered by :::---http://lgl.epfl.ch/research/use_cases/