It was a sign of growing pains when the upstart auction site known as Auction Fire hosted an auction that ended in a tie. The auction was for an engraved bracelet belonging to former Bay City Rollers band member Stuart "Woody" Wood. Several users got into a bidding war but two different people entered the same bid amount which caused an unsual glitch to occur.
Online Auctions rely on a proxy bid system which is Artificial Intelligence that tries to win the auction by incrementing bids as necessary until the maximum amount specified has been reached. "I named our proxy bidder Bidbot," says Aaron Bradley, the programmer for Auction Fire. "Bidbot recommends unique bid amounts but in this case those recommendations were ignored and two users entered the same bid which led to a tie."
The two high bidders weren't exactly pleased with the perplexing result according to Stuart Wood's wife Denise. "Yes a bit of a predicament to say the least," she said when contacting Auction Fire support about the issue. "We have thought it through and decided he engraves another bracelet and we give them one each at the amount they bid."
Stuart Wood (known as Woody) still has a very loyal fan base even after 40 years on the rock n' roll scene. He now has his own record label, The Music Kitchen, and produces and performs on many albums, mostly with a Celtic/Scottish vibe. He offers merchandise and memorabilia for sale at his official website www.sjwood.co.uk.
Auction Fire is a free online auction marketplace that charges no listing fees or after auction fees. The website boasts over 22,000 verified sellers and has recently been recognized as one of the best online auction sites on Top Ten Reviews. It is quickly becoming a welcome refuge for disgruntled eBay sellers and people looking to advertise their website or products in a fun and friendly setting. They will be hosting a contest this holiday season which challenges users to search through auctions to find Santa's missing elves for a chance to win a prize.
