Patent ID: 7162446

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: prior to a live, in-person auction, establishing, in an online environment, a starting bid for an item by performing a pre-auction bidding process in the online environment for a predetermined amount of time, the pre-auction bidding process including, communicating information associated with the item to online bidders, receiving bids for the item from online bidders, and choosing as the starting bid a highest bid from the bids received; communicating the starting bid for the item to the live, in-person auction; and during the live, in-person auction, performing a live auction process including, updating, in the online environment, bidding information associated with the item, the updated bidding information to reflect a current bid associated with the item in the live, in-person auction, receiving a maximum bid amount from one of the online bidders, and submitting a proxy bid to the live, in-person auction on behalf of the online bidder, the proxy bid submitted against one or more live bidders that are participating in the live, in-person auction, the proxy bid based on the maximum bid amount.