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From a meeting with Spin S (http://auctionitwizard.com/) and Helen P (http://kidzonemuseum.org/) here are some requirements and thoughts on a potential CiviAuction module. The use cases described were from KidZone and Farwest. Another related use case is described on the forums
Spin has a company that uses barcoded wristbands, touch screen computers and PDA's to facilitate the physical part at the auction. We envision CiviAuction to be the online part that communicates with the offline part via import/export of database information. Online registration for an auction can be accomplished as a CiviEvent. The big missing piece from CiviEvent is the ability to sell a table (or sponsorship) for a fixed amount and then collect all information for the table participants. The table sponsor might not have the information for all the participants (or even get all participants he/she is entitled to). CiviEvent will need to create "slots" for all table attendees and fill all available information and allow backfill of the remaining information at a later stage.
We plan on building support for offline event auctions initially. At a later phase we will add support for bids to come in online before the live event starts.
Existing systems
I could not find any open source system that does offline auctions. I did not check the online auction software in detail since the feature sets are fairly different. There are quite a few commercial systems which provide this service. Some of them are:
Planned Feature Set
- Set up an "Auction Event" along with relevant details and dates
- Use CiviEvent for event registration.
- Allow users with permission "add auction items" to add items to the auction
- Allow users with permission "approve auction items" to approve items added
- Generate Bid Sheets
- Generate Auction Catalog and/or Export data so folks can generate one using Word/OO
- Allow user with permission "enter auction bids" to enter bid information for auction items
- Generate invoice for winning bidders
- Intuitive and meaningful reports
- Send Thank You letters and receipts to users who donated auction items
- Send Thank You letters, receipts and an invoice to users who won auction items
