Have you ever wanted to run your own "real" auction site? I'm not talking about an eBay store or something on Amazon, I'm talking about your very own auction site that you control, host and manage, where you set all the rules. Well you can, thanks to a powerful feature-rich program called PHPauction.

With the latest version of PHPauction XL version 3.0 you can run your own auction site with many features similar to those found on eBay and have a level of control over auctions that you just can't get from a public portal. On the other hand, while PHPauction may offer a lot of eBay-like features it's hardly "eBay-in-a-box."

What is PHPauction?
In a nutshell, PHPauction is an online auction site application that enables you to set up your own site on where buyers and sellers can sell and buy stuff. PHPauction actually comes in three flavors — GPL, EL and XL — and ranges in price from $24 to $866 depending on the version, whether it's user-installed or an assisted install and whether or not you want open source code. For the purpose of this review we tested PHPauction XL 3.0 and went with the self-install option without source code (which is priced at $495).

The XL version is the one that offers the greatest number of features and customizability including support for multiple payment gateways (PayPal, 2checkout and Authorize.net), user authentication settings, invoice management, and CSS styles with ready-to-use templates.

How to Install
PHPauction will run on a typical LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack, though PHP 4 (as opposed to PHP 5) is what's recommended. There is a simple PHP compatibility script that that PHPauction's site offers that is supposed to help you determine if your server is correctly set up. Once you've purchased the application, you get a download link to a compressed file that you'll have to upload and uncompress on your Web server. Then there is a Web-based install script to walk through which does most of the rest of the setup work (with a few basic input items like MySQL database info).

After going through the setup process the first time, though, I hit a snag that the install script and the php compatibility script had not warned me off: PHPauction (at least the version I was demo-ing) protects its source code with something called SourceGuardian and requires an additional configuration option added to your php.ini file in order to run.

PHPauction's admin controls let you configure your auction site in many ways, like setting up the final value selling fee schedule.

Features
As you'd expect from a program that claims to be an auction application, PHPauction XL 3.0 includes features that allow users (both buyers and sellers) to register to use the site. Sellers can obviously list items and buyers can buy.

As with the eBay, there is a facility for user feedback, category listings, pictures, various auction eye-candy features (bold, home page highlighted, category featured) as well as "buy it now" and reserve.

Control over your site, the way it works and what goes on is where the power of PHPauction comes in.

Seeing you're not just a user with PHPauction, you're actually the administrator as well. You can set whether or not you will allow the eye-candy features, "buy it now" and/or reserve price, as well as actually set the price that those features will cost a seller. You can also set the bid increments, as well as duration at intervals beyond the basic static levels that eBay offers its users.

One of the things that irks many eBay users is that eBay still does little or nothing to prevent "sniping" from occurring on its auctions. Sniping is the practice of bidding at the last possible second with a higher bid. Overstock.com at one point initiated an anti-sniping feature that automatically extends by X amount of time the auction if a bid is placed in the last Y seconds of the auction. With PHPauction XL 3.0 that same power is within your reach with a feature called "Auctions Autoextension" which does the same thing. Seeing as it's your site you can choose to enable the anti-sniping feature or not. It's up to you and that's what control is all about: choice.

As the administrator you can also manage your site's users, have a newsletter and the ability to export the listings on your auction site to a Microsoft Excel file. Personally, I would like to see even more built-in reporting features in the program. Though, I suppose if you can export as Excel you can always do your own analysis outside of the site. A basic level of site statistics (access, browser, platform, domain) is also provided. Again, I would like more detailed statistics, but I suppose you could also place more detailed Web analysis capability directly on your web server (using a Web analytics package like Urchin).

This is a demo home page of what a PHPauction-built site looks like.

The default graphic layout that that PHPauction XL 3.0 comes with is somewhat less than fantastic. There isn't a true WYSIWYG layout/design editor but you do get dialog box control of fonts and colors. The application offers 9 basic color themes - blue, dark green, green, grey, navy, orange, purple, strawberry, yellow. Though, for some reason, color changes are not reflected in the back end admin, so you have to go out to your site to see the changes in action. Overall, however, adjusting some of the thematic and style elements is not terribly hard, seeing as the site layout is CSS based. You skin the site to fit your needs. In fact I found the best documentation provided for PHPauction XL 3.0 was the docs on how to handle Themes and CSS.

In general, the documentation was relatively poor and does not fully explain the width and breadth of capabilities that the program offers. The back-end admin interface, however, is clearly laid out and the simple exercise of going option by option will provide you with just about whatever you're looking for.

It's Not eBay, and It Doesn't Have to Be
PHPauction XL 3.0 is not an "eBay-in-a-box." Sure, it offers a lot of features that are eBay-like and it offers a good degree of options and customizability, but it's just not the same.

What sets eBay aside from its competition and makes it the powerhouse that it is, is its community of millions of loyal users. When you start PHPauction XL 3.0 you start with a community of 1 (you, the admin). eBay has spent untold billions building its infrastructure from a support and a technology point of view - all of which is reflected in a highly available and very secure Web site. PHPauction XL 3.0 is, however, a great starting point from a feature and functionality point of view to building your own solid auction site and community.

XL 3.0 includes an option that allows you to make sure you've got the most up-to-date components, which is a good thing from a feature and security point of view. However, since users will host auction sites themselves, the security of the Web site host is the users' responsibility, as is availability and scalability.

eBay isn't necessarily the auction solution for all needs, all the time (though eBay may beg to differ). The ability to run your own auction site (assuming you have a ready-made community, one that is easily accessible or one you can easily attract) may well be a very attractive option for many. Those that want more control than eBay offers, those that don't want to pay eBay fees as well as those looking at building niche sites, may be well served by PHPauction XL 3.0.

Sean Michael Kerner is a regular contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com.