my %link = (

   home => "www.ebay.co.uk",

   search => "http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&ebaytag1code=3&currdisp=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort",

  auction => "http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem",

 bid => "http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll",

);



sub auction_request {

    my $self = shift;

   my $hash = shift;

   $self->{content} = undef;   # just in case of leftovers



 # build the browser object

  $self->{browser} = LWP::UserAgent->new()    unless($self->{browser};

    my $browser = $self->{browser};



 # build the request string

  my $uri = new URI($links{auction});

 my $qry = $uri->query();

    $qry .= "&item=$hash->{key}";

   $uri->query($qry);



  # send & receive request

    $self->{response} = $browser->get($uri->canonical());



   # return true/false on success/failure

  return 0    unless $self->{response}->is_success;

   return 1;

}