Clifton Lawrence Cheek
JOMC 50 - 8:00 a.m. - Carroll

Internet Auction Sites

Section I:
    Auctions have always been a very efficient way of obtaining an item that one wants. Places where auctions are held usually sell both new and previously owned items that are sold to the highest bidder. Auction houses have traditionally been an actual place where one goes to bid on the item they would like to buy. The Internet has opened a whole new arena in auctioning items. One can now buy any item with the click of a button and a few keystrokes to enter a credit card number. Bid sites such as Amazon.com, Yahoo.com and ebay.com expanded the market of auctioning items to a worldwide bazaar. One can find almost anything he or she desires by consulting sites such as the ones mentioned above; most traditional auctions have become almost obsolete.

In researching Internet auctioning I would like to find out:
    1) How did Internet auction sites begin and progress to their current state? and What is the history of such sites?
    2) What is lost or gained from buying items on the Internet as opposed to buying them at a traditional auction house?
    3) How have auctions on the Internet set a precedent for large-scale retail expansion onto the web?

    Auctioning on the Internet has become a huge industry promoting the purchase and sell of numerous items. My research will hopefully provide information concerning this booming business to anyone interested. My site will aid potential buyers to the various auction sites and will provide potential owners of auction sites with information concerning this industry.

Section I-b: Keywords are very important in the pursuit of information on any topic. In researching Internet auctions I consulted numerous web sites and databases. Below are the main keywords I used in three main areas of obtaining information UNC Library Catalog - auction?, Amazon.com, online business, Internet business Academic Universe Lexis-Nexis - Internet auction!, Amazon.com and ebay.com Google.com - online auction, Amazon.com, ebay.com, Yahoo.com


Section II:
    1American Association of Law Libraries and Marie Whited, Integrating access to online and traditional resources (Valencia, CA: Duplicated by Mobiltape, 1995), sound recording; available from UNC-Law Library: Z675.L2 A57 1995 no.B10.
    
    2David Bunnell and Richard A. Luecke, The e-Bay phenomenon: business secrets behind the world's hottest Internet company (New York: John Wiley, c2000); available from UNC-Davis Library: HF5478.B86 2000.

    3Rosalind Resnick and Dave Taylor, The Internet Business Guide: riding the information superhighway to profit (Indianapolis, IN: Sams Pub., c1994); available from UNC-Park Library: Tel-net .R434 1994.


Section III:

(2001, June 28). Americans Spent a Record 556 Million Dollars in Online Auctions, Jumping 149 Percent in Past Year,     According to Nielsen//Net Ratings and Harris Interactive. Business Wire [Newsletter], 1101 words. Available:     LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe [2001, July 15].

(2001, February 21). Andale Taps $6 Billion 'Off-eBay' Market -Gives Businesses the Freedom To Sell Anywhere With     New Stores Product; Small Businesses Use Andale Stores to Build Direct Relationships With Customers and Capture     Additional Sales From Auction Buyers. PR Newswire [Online], 1400 words. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic     Universe [2001, July 15].

(2000, December 7). Bizfinity Small Business Solution Synchronizes Internet Auction Sales With Traditional Business;     Business Synchronization ™ Leapfrogs Traditional Web Accounting Systems from Intuit & NetLedger by Focusing on     Internet Auction Channel Integration. PR Newswire [Online], 632 words. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic     Universe [2001, July 15].

Guernsey, Lisa. (2000, August 20) The Powers Behind the Auctions. New York Times [Newspaper], 3103 words.     Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe [2001, July 15].

Hilsgen, Laurie. (2001, March 19) Advertising Auction Sites Draw Crowds. Infotech Weekly [Newspaper], 1344     words. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe [2001, July 15].

(2001, May 31). Yahoo! Auctions Delivers on Quality Initiative, Increases Sell Through; Sellers Making More Money     and Selling More Items on Yahoo! Auctions. Business Wire [Newsletter], 1385 words. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS     Academic Universe [2001, July 15].


Section IV:

Title of Web page: ebay - The World's Online Marketplace
Web address: http://www.ebay.com/
Brief Description: This is an Internet auction site. It welcomes buyers/sellers from around the world. The site is well organized and easily navigable. It includes a community page where one can participate in chats and read a newsletter among other things.
Source of Web site: ebay

Title of Web page: The Internet Auction List
Web address: http://www.internetauctionlist.com/
Brief Description: This is a smaller auction website than ebay. It ships to most major countries worldwide. This site seems nice but gets troublesome or hectic at times.
Source of Web site: USAWeb.com

Title of Web page: Amazon.com
Web address: http://www.amazon.com/
Brief Description: Amazon.com is a nice auction site for books, music and videos. It is easily navigable and has many links. Amazon.com also offers an associate position to people who link Amazon.com to their own Web page and sell items on it.
Source of Web site: Amazon.com

Title of Web page: Yahoo! Auctions
Web address: http://auctions.yahoo.com/
Brief Description: Yahoo! Auctions offers a large market for the purchase and sell of all goods. The site is nicely arranged and flows well. With easy connection to the search engine, Yahoo!, this auction site is convenient and heavily viewed.
Source of Web site: Yahoo! Inc.

Title of Web page: uBid - Where you win at paying less
Web address: http://www.ubid.com/cat/get_cat_page.asp?CatID=0&Pg=0
Brief Description: While not as large as ebay, Amazon or Yahoo!, uBid is the most interesting. It has a lot of pictures and limited text. The home page has 12 pictures of auction items to invite the viewer. This site has a substantial amount of categories but seems more computer based.
Source of Web site: uBid, Inc.


Section V:

Title: Amazon.com - No Clicks for a One-Click Patent

A U.S. Appeals Court overturned a decision that blocked Barnesandnoble.com from using Amazon.com's patented one-click shopping. This ruling now allows Barneandnoble.com to use its "Express Lane" service, which uses the one-click technology, as long as the customer has previously entered his/her credit card number and other information.

Previously Amazon.com had sued Barnesandnoble.com for using Amazon's technology. The idea behind the patent is that the server implants a cookie that gathers information on the user's computer and that cookie retains the information, allowing the server to quickly access the stored information and identify the person. All previously entered information is collected and automatically entered for the user.

Many Web personalities and organizations believe that a patent on a convenience such as this is an "attack against the World Wide Web and against e-commerce in general," wrote the bfteam of the GNU Project. Patents have been freely given to many Internet based companies (3,600 in the last year). These Internet patents mainly cover broad concepts rather than specialized inventions.1

U.S. Patent (5,960,411) was issued to Amazon.com in September 1999 and it quickly raised controversy and debates on what should be patented and what should not.2 There have been many patents on one-click purchasing spanning from 1995 to the present. One was issued in 1995 as a European patent for a one-step purchasing method that also displays pre-programmed buyer information. Two patents on one-click shopping were issued in 1998, both as U.S. patents. The first was for a hand-held shopping device that allows one-key ordering and the other was a patent for single-stroke shopping using a two-way radio satellite system.2

There is a $10,000 bounty being awarded by BountyQuest to anyone who can find evidence of an equivalent patent existing prior to Amazon.com's patent. As of the present time no entries in this contest have addressed the full extent of Amazon.com's patent but many have invalidated separate points of it. The next court date to decide the verdict of this case between Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com is in September in Seattle, Washington. Until this time Barnesandnoble.com has been granted access to use the one-click shopping methods.

Notes:
1Page, Nigel, "Coping with a climate of uncertainty: WHO OWNS WHAT?," The Financial Times, 21 June 2001, p.2. Also Available [Online]: General Business File ASAP [Accessed: 16 July 2001].

2Chartrand, Sabra, "Patents; Even with a bounty, no claims appear to nullify Amazon.com's 'one-click' shopping device," The New York Times, 19 March 2001, sec. C, p.14, column 3. Also Available [Online]: General News File ASAP [Accessed: 16 July 2001].

Three Web Sites:
Title of Web page: Boycott Amazon
Web address: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/amazon.html
Brief description: Reasons to boycott Amazon.com because of patent suit
Source of Web site: Free Software Foundation (FSF)

Title of Web page: Click once to buy…
Web address: http://foz.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$8
Brief description: This site is in opposition to Amazon's monopoly on one-click shopping and provides examples of why Amazon.com shouldn't have its patent.
Source of Web site: Manila

Title of Web page: BN.com Gets Its One-Click Back
Web address: http://www.internetworld.com/news/archive/02152001a.jsp
Brief description: This site gives background information on the patent controversy and tells how Barnesandnoble.com got rights back to their "Express Lane" purchasing method.
Source of Web site: Penton Media