Patent ID: 8666876

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a bid from each of a plurality of bidders for a plurality of items in an electronic auction, each bid containing bid information including bid price and quantity for each bid: determining, by a processor, an existence of a customer record for a customer in a customer database using the bid information; based on a determination that the customer record does not exist for the customer, creating a new customer record as part of the validating of the bid; and placing the created new customer record in the customer database; validating the bid information of the bid to ensure that bid requirements are satisfied, the validating of the bid information occurring after the customer record is created and placed in the customer database; and based on a successful validation of the bid, entering the bid for the item in a bid database; and awarding one or more items from the plurality of items to each of a plurality of successful bidders of the plurality of bidders at different item prices based on the bid prices in the bid information by each of the plurality of successful bidders.