Patent ID: 8756143

Claim:
A computer-based auction method for preparing auction bids on auction objects that are for sale, the method performed on an offer unit, a communication terminal operated by a customer, and a evaluation device, comprising: entering offer data at an input device of the offer unit, by entering data on an offer of an auction object that is for sale by auction, by entering class designation corresponding to the auction object based on a predefined object classification scheme by selecting a product segment that fits the auction object from a object classification table that is available at the offer unit, and by entering auction data including auction method and minimum sales price for the auction; generating auction offer data at the offer unit as a unified data packet for each auction including the offer data specifying the offer of the auction object, the class designation corresponding to the auction object, and the auction data; transmitting the unified data packet with the auction offer data from a transmission device of the offer unit to the communication terminal of the customer; filtering at the communication terminal the auction offer data based on a customer-specific profile that corresponds to the customer to generate customer-specific offer data from the unified data packet including information on customer-specific auction objects, the filtering performed by a filter unit that stores the customer-specific profile at the communication terminal; entering a bid including a bid amount for at least one auction object of the customer-specific offer data at the communication terminal, the at least one auction object identified by the customer; linking the bid amount, information on the identified at least one auction object, and an identification information of the bidding customer to form customer bid data with a linking module of the communication terminal; sending the customer bid data from the communication terminal to the evaluation device via a cellular phone network; evaluating the bid at the evaluation device and generating a message with an outcome of the bidding; and sending the message with the outcome of the bidding from the evaluation device to the offer unit.