AUCTION REDEMPTION SYSTEM AND METHOD

摘要

An electronic auction system (112) provides auction services and related functionalities that permit users to conduct auction transactions with various payment units such as incentive points and credits as well as money. The system comprises a web server (137) which interfaces with a database server (136), a messaging server (138) and the Internet (150) for performing various functions. The database server (136) serves an auction database (130), a merchandise database (131), a seller database (132), a bidder database (133), an account database (134), and a bid database (135). The system reserves the bid amount associated any new valid bid in bidders' account and unreserves those bid amounts that were previously reserved but are no longer the winning bid or otherwise displaced from the top bid positions.