SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING AUTOMATIC BIDDING TO PROMOTE LOWER RESERVE PRICE IN ACTIVE AUCTIONS

1 . A method for conducting an online auction, the method being implemented by one or more processors and comprising:

(a) generating an interactive presentation corresponding to the online auction, the interactive presentation being communicated to one or more prospective bidders over a network;

(b) maintaining a reserve price for the online auction, the reserve price being (i) selected by a seller, and (ii) undisclosed to the one or more prospective bidders;

(c) while the auction is ongoing, prompting the seller to reduce the reserve price without notice to the one or more prospective bidders; and

(d) while the top bid of the auction is below the reserve price, generating, on the interactive presentation, one or more new bids that originates from a source other than one of the prospective bidders, the one or more new bids updating the top bid of the auction to be an amount such that a sum of the updated top bid and the auction's bid increment satisfies the reserve price.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising programmatically selecting the reserve price to be reduced to an amount that is one bid increment greater than a next new bid that is one bid increment higher than the top bid.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the source of the new bid is either the seller or a host of the online auction.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a virtual personality, then displaying, on the interactive presentation, at least one of the one or more new bids as originating from the virtual personality.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein (d) is performed responsively to (c) being performed.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein (c) is performed responsively to (d) being performed

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the new bid is communicated upon activation of a trigger.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the trigger corresponds to a bidding activity, a scheduled event, or an elapsed period of time.

9 . A system for conducting an online auction, the system comprising:

a memory that stores instructions;

one or more processors that use the instructions stored in the memory to:

generate an interactive presentation corresponding to the online auction, the interactive presentation being communicated to one or more prospective bidders over a network;

maintain a reserve price for the online auction, the reserve price being (i) selected by a seller, and (ii) undisclosed to the one or more prospective bidders;

while the auction is ongoing, prompt the seller to reduce the reserve price without notice to the one or more prospective bidders; and

while a top bid of the auction is below the reserve price, generate, on the interactive presentation, one or more new bids that originates from a source other than one of the prospective bidders, the one or more new bids updating the top bid of the auction such that a sum of the updated top bid and the auction's bid increment satisfies the reserve price.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors reduce the reserve price to an amount that is one bid increment greater than a next new bid that is one bid increment higher than the top bid.

11 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors generate the one or more new bids to update the top bid to be two bid increments below the reserve price and the seller is prompted to then reduce the reserve price by one bid increment.

12 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the source other than one of the prospective bidders is the seller or a program of the online auction.

13 . The system of claim 9 , further comprising generating a virtual personality, then displaying, on the interactive presentation, at least one of the one or more new bids as originating from the virtual personality.

14 . The system of claim 9 , further comprising enabling the seller to select at least one of the one or more new bids.

15 . The system of claim 9 , further comprising programmatically generating at least one of the one or more new bids.

16 . The system of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the one or more new bids is communicated upon activation of a trigger.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the trigger corresponds to a bidding activity, a scheduled event, or an elapsed period of time.

18 . A non-transitory machine-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform operations comprising:

generating an interactive presentation corresponding to the online auction, the interactive presentation being communicated to one or more prospective bidders over a network;

maintaining a reserve price for the online auction, the reserve price being (i) selected by a seller, and (ii) undisclosed to the one or more prospective bidders;

while the auction is ongoing, prompting the seller to reduce the reserve price without notice to the one or more prospective bidders; and

while the top bid of the auction is below the reserve price, communicating, on the interactive presentation, a new bid that originates from a source other than one of the prospective bidders, the new bid updating the top bid of the auction to be an amount such that the sum of the updated top bid and the auction's bid increment is equal to or greater than the reserve price.