METHOD AND SYSTEM OF AGGREGATING LISTINGS FOR SALE

• US 20070271153A1
• Filed: 08/02/2007
• Published: 11/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Goel, Amit, Jain, Bhupendra
• Application Number:
  US11/832,788
• Publication Number:
  US 20070271153A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

Described herein are a method and a system to transition unsold items offered for sale via a first process to a second process; and to aggregate the items for sale in the second process in lots.

Claims

1. An auction system, comprising:

a first module to offer items for sale via an auction process; and

a second module to aggregate a plurality of unsold items for sale at a predetermined price in a single lot, wherein the plurality of unsold items includes items previously offered for sale via the auction process.

2. The auction system of claim 1 including a further module coupled to the first and second modules and responsive to a predetermined condition to move the items previously offered for sale by the first module to the second module and aggregating them with other items for sale in the single lot, wherein the predetermined condition is selected from a group including termination of the auction process, receipt of a seller input instructing the move, and completing a specified number of times of listing the items in the auction process.

3. The auction system of claim 1 wherein the first module is to offer various items for sale via the auction process and at a predetermined price.

4. The auction system of claim 1 wherein the second module includes a clearance section.

5. The auction system of claim 1 wherein the first module offers the items for sale from a time A to a time B, and the second module offers the single lot for sale from the time B to a time C.

6. The auction system of claim 1, wherein items offered for sale via the first module are categorized under a particular meta category, and the items offered for sale via the second module are categorized under the same particular meta category, the system including a search module to search the particular meta category for the items offered for sale by the first and second modules.

7. The auction system of claim 6 including a search result set having items offered for sale by the first module in a first section and by the second module in a second section, wherein the search result set distinguishes the second section from the first section.

8. The auction system of claim 7 wherein the search result set includes an icon associated with items listed by the second module.

9. An electronic publishing system interface comprising:

a first section to offer a first plurality of listings for sale via a first fixed-price process; and

a clearance section to offer a second plurality of listings for sale via a second fixed-price process, wherein the second plurality of listings includes items previously unsold in the first section and collectively listed under respective categories in the clearance section.

10. The interface of claim 9 wherein the first section is to offer the first plurality of listings for sale via an auction process and via the fixed-price process, and the first section is to offer the first plurality of listings for sale from a time A to a time B, and the clearance section is to offer the second plurality of listings from the time B to a time C.

11. The interface of claim 9 wherein the first plurality of listings are categorized under a particular meta category, and the second plurality of listings are categorized under the same particular meta category, the interface including a search module to search the particular meta category for the first and second plurality of listings for publication in a search result set, wherein the search result set distinguishes the first and second plurality of listings.

12. A method comprising:

transitioning unsold items offered for sale via a first process to a second process; and

aggregating the items for sale in the second process in lots according to seller and category.

13. The method of claim 12 including offering the lots for sale at a predetermined price.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the first process includes an auction process and a fixed-price process, and the second process includes the fixed-price process.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the transitioning depends upon the occurrence of a predetermined event, wherein the predetermined event is selected from a group including termination of the first process, receipt of a seller input instructing the transition, and completing a specified number of times of listing the unsold items in the first process.

16. The method of claim 12 including:

associating a first fee with the first process; and

associating a second fee with the second process; and

waiving the second fee when the first fee is assessed.

17. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more processors perform the following operations:

transitioning unsold items offered for sale via a first process to a second process; and

aggregating the items for sale in the second process in lots according to seller and category.

18. The medium of claim 17 wherein the method includes offering each lot for sale at a price that is less than an aggregate listing price in the first process.

19. The medium of claim 17 wherein the first process includes an auction process and a fixed-price process, and the second process includes the fixed-price process.

20. The medium of claim 17 wherein the transitioning depends upon the occurrence of a predetermined event, wherein the predetermined event is selected from a group including termination of the first process, receipt of a seller input instructing the transition, and completing a specified number of times of listing the unsold items in the first process.

21. The medium of claim 17 wherein the unsold items are offered for sale at least twice via the first process before transferring to the second process.