Patent ID: 7076460

Claim:
A method for conducting an auction to produce a winning bidder who receives the subject of the auction in exchange for the winning bid, the auction having bidders, where a plurality of bidders have data input devices for communicating over a network to the auction site, comprising: generating an asking bid; displaying at the auction site in real-time, the asking bid; broadcasting in real-time over the network the asking bid to at least one of the plurality of bidders having data input devices; generating bid acceptance signals representing a desire to acquire the subject of the auction at a current bid by the bidders using the data input devices communicating over the network to the auction site; delaying a variable controlled time window before accepting a first of a plurality of bid acceptance signals; monitoring the network for bid acceptance signals; accepting a first bid acceptance signal after the variable controlled time window; identifying the bidder whose bid acceptance signal was accepted as the current bidder; changing the asking bid to the current bid; adjusting the variable controlled time window before accepting subsequent bid acceptance signals to a second variable controlled time window; generating a second asking bid; displaying at the auction site in real-time, a second asking bid and the current bid; broadcasting in real-time over the network the second asking bid and the current bid to at least one of the plurality of bidders; delaying the second variable controlled time window before accepting subsequent bid acceptance signals; monitoring the network for bid acceptance signals; accepting a first bid acceptance signal after the second variable controlled time window; identifying the bidder whose bid acceptance signal was accepted as the new current bidder; and changing the second asking bid to the new current bid.