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I have a client looking into setting up a low volume auction site for a niche market. The user would like to avoid a different login for members and admins and prefers to stay with EE if at all possible

  1. Are there any available add-ons that are designed to allow community members (non-admins) to post their own auction items, timed and buy it now options and require a commission payout to the website upon auction completion.
  2. Can this functionality be rolled out with any of the existing store add-ons (espresso, cart-throb, brilliant retail), if so, how would you approach this?

Thanks for any input.

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  • There are no add-ons I'm aware of to run auction sites, and it would be quite different from regular ecommerce so I doubt any of the main 3 ecommerce add-ons would be of any use. You're probably looking at a custom build, unless anyone else has done this before and can share their experiences. Jan 22, 2013 at 7:58
  • This may be way to late, but I am in the progress of building one. It is very very close to being complete. Keep an eye on auctionee.co.uk. Contact me if you are still looking for an Auction Module for EE. Thanks, Ian
    – Ian Ryde
    Jul 21, 2013 at 20:09
  • Ian, I am looking for a pumped part of that module but modified, would you be interested? Cheers
    – Klauss
    May 20, 2014 at 20:13
  • Agheorghiesei Andrei-Klauss, sure, do you want to message me?
    – Ian Ryde
    Jul 9, 2014 at 13:59

2 Answers 2

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I think this is actually possible with ANY existing e-commerce solutions (CartThrob, BrilliantRetail, Store) PLUS custom add-on.

The store should be set up in a way that items would be visible, but not available for purchase until the auction is complete.

The auction add-on should record all bids and change item's price.

When auction is complete, the item status should be changed (so it becomes available for purchase) - but the auction add-on should restrict the purchase to be available only to member whose bid was winning.

Regarding adding items to auction, I'm not sure what approach BR and Store use for it, but with CartThrob it can be done by simply providing SafeCracker form.

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  • Feel free to contact me if you want a private discussion
    – Yuri Salimovskiy
    Jan 22, 2013 at 8:36
  • I like this idea of changing the status for the auction, i will play with this concept in hopes of a solution. I am most worried about the payment details and the existing store solutions would certainly help with that. Jan 22, 2013 at 18:39
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A quick search at Devot-ee shows no auction add-ons, though it's possible that one was created and not posted there. But, I do recall their being a discussion about an Auction Module for EE awhile back and went searching in my bookmarks.

The reference I found was a tutorial on how to build your first module, an Auction Module. The tutorial is done by Andrew Weaver, who's built a number of great add-ons for ExpressionEngine. It's part of his ExpressionEngine Add-on Recipes website, which is…

a collection of articles and tutorials to help you learn how to build ExpressionEngine add-ons.

So far there is an eight part series on 'Building an Auction Module'-Our First Module, that can probably be stepped through in under a week. Downside, you'd need to do it yourself and I'm not certain if the series is fully complete or is at something like 8 of 10 entries. But Andrew could probably be contacted to help you finish off any remaining components. His email is available right on the site.

I'd think that after the auction is won, you could probably use Simple Commerce or Exp:resso Store to handle the final payment transaction. That part could be a little tricky, but shouldn't be to hard. All auction items would need to start with a base price/bid, that will allow you to complete the Store record. But the final price could possibly be handled the same way donations are, by using the quantity field instead of the price field, when the price field is set to $1. That way a bid of $500 would be Qty: 500 x Price $1, to record the final sale price.

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  • I just sent an e-mail to EE Recipes about the series and availability of a commercial add-on, if I hear back I will be sure to post any information I run across. Jan 22, 2013 at 18:37
  • I heard back from Andrew yesterday, here's his e-mail response - "I've a few more parts of the series that need to be proof-read before they are ready to put on the site, but the module is more "complete" than is currently available. I am planning to release the module at some stage but it probably needs a bit more work before it is suitable for use. What features would you like adding? I'm intending to keep the module fairly simple but I'd be happy to try and add anything you felt was missing. Andrew" Jan 23, 2013 at 14:21
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    Andrew is pretty awesome, so if you can get the built module from him or help from him to finish building it out yourself, that would be a good option. I'd still recommend going through the series. Sometime you just need to build your own add-on. You can do PHP straight in the template, but that can get messy. I'd say its worth, the walk through, so at the very least you know what it's doing and what its capable of. Jan 23, 2013 at 14:28

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