Method and apparatus for facilitating sales of goods by independent parties

• US 20040138962A1
• Filed: 12/22/2003
• Published: 07/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Balijepalli, Srinivas, Kopelman, Joshua M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,326,697 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0617 Representative agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0619 Neutral agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers

Abstract

A method for pricing independent sellers'"'"' goods. A marketeer exploits the nature of readily identifiable, fungible, durable goods by determining a price for a good, such as a used good, by using a price of a comparable good, such as a new good, as an index price and deriving a discounted sale price for the good from the price of the comparable good having essentially the same value due to its fungible, durable nature. A best price for the good is ensured by using as the index price a lowest price among a group of vendors for the comparable good. A shopping agent program may be used to query one or more vendors to determine a best price for the comparable good, and a pricing agent program may be used to derive a discounted sale price for the good from the best price for the comparable good.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for pricing goods of independent sellers using a marketeer controller capable of communicating via a communications network, the marketeer controller including a CPU and a memory operatively connected to the CPU, the method comprising the marketeer controller:

receiving from an independent seller, via the communications network, data identifying the independent seller'"'"'s good;

querying a vendor'"'"'s controller, via the communications network, to determine the vendor'"'"'s price for a comparable good; and

deriving a sale price for the good from the vendor'"'"'s price using a predetermined method.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the good in a marketplace as an item for sale at an unidentified price, the marketplace being accessible to a buyer via the communications network; and

presenting the good for sale in the marketplace at the sale price, the querying and deriving steps being performed responsive to receiving from the buyer, via the communications network, an expression of interest in purchasing the good, whereby the sale price is derived proximate a time of sale of the good to the buyer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the seller agrees, before the sale, to sell the good at a sale price determined by the marketeer proximate a time of sale of the good to the buyer, the sale price being determined in accordance with the predetermined method.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein deriving the sale price comprises equating an index price to the vendor'"'"'s price of the comparable good.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the seller'"'"'s good is used and has a certain universal product code (UPC) or International Standard Book Number (ISBN) code, and the comparable good is new and has an identical UPC or ISBN.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the querying is performed responsive to the receiving of the identifying data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined method for deriving the sale price of the independent seller'"'"'s good is set by the marketeer controller.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data identifying the good of the independent seller'"'"'s good comprises a universal product code (UPC).

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the data identifying the good the independent seller'"'"'s good comprises an International Standard Book Number (ISBN).

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined method comprises discounting the index price for the comparable good to determine the sale price for the independent seller'"'"'s good.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the predetermined method comprises discounting the index price by approximately fifty percent.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the querying is performed responsive to receiving from a buyer, via the communications network, an expression of interest in purchasing the good.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the expression of interest is a standard identification code identifying the good.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the standard identification code comprises a universal product code (UPC).

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the standard identification code comprises an International Standard Book Number (ISBN).

16. A computer-implemented method for pricing goods of independent sellers using a marketeer controller capable of communicating via a communications network, the marketeer controller including a CPU and a memory operatively connected to the CPU, the method comprising the marketeer controller:

receiving from an independent seller, via the communications network, data identifying the independent seller'"'"'s good;

querying a plurality of third parties'"'"' vendor controllers, via the communications network to determine each third party'"'"'s price of a comparable good;

equating an index price to a lowest price of the third parties'"'"' prices; and

deriving a sale price for the independent seller'"'"'s good from the index price using a predetermined method.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the predetermined method for deriving the sale price of the independent seller'"'"'s good is set by the marketeer controller.

18. A computer-implemented method for pricing goods of independent sellers using a marketeer controller capable of communicating via a communications network, the marketeer controller including a CPU and a memory operatively connected to the CPU, the method comprising the marketeer controller:

receiving from an independent seller, via the communications network, data identifying the independent seller'"'"'s good, the independent seller'"'"'s good being a certain good in used condition;

querying a vendor'"'"'s controller, via the communications network, to determine the vendor'"'"'s price for a comparable good, the comparable good being the certain good in new condition; and

deriving a sale price for the independent seller'"'"'s good from the vendor'"'"'s price for the comparable good using a predetermined method established by the marketeer controller, the predetermined method comprising discounting the vendor'"'"'s price for the comparable good to determine the sale price for the independent seller'"'"'s good.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the querying vendor'"'"'s controller is performed proximate a time that the buyer wishes to buy the independent seller'"'"'s good.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the querying is performed proximate a time that the independent seller registers the good with the marketeer as a good offered for sale by the seller.

21. A marketeer controller for processing data for pricing an independent seller'"'"'s good, comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU) for executing programs;

a memory operatively connected to the CPU;

a first program stored in the memory for receiving and storing data from the seller to identify a good;

a shopping agent program stored in the memory for querying a vendor'"'"'s controller to determine the vendor'"'"'s price for a comparable good having a standard identification code identical to the seller'"'"'s good, and for determining an index price based on the vendor'"'"'s price; and

a pricing agent program stored in the memory for deriving a sale price for the good from the index price using a predetermined method.

22. The marketeer controller of claim 21, wherein the shopping agent program is configured to use the standard identification code to query the vendor'"'"'s controller.

23. The marketeer controller of claim 21, wherein the seller'"'"'s good is used and has a certain universal product code (UPC) or International Standard Book Number (ISBN), and the comparable good is new and has an identical UPC or ISBN.

24. The marketeer controller of claim 21, wherein the predetermined method comprises discounting the index price to determine the sale price for the independent seller'"'"'s good.