ELECTRONIC QUANTITY PURCHASING SYSTEM
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Abstract
Disclosed is an electronic quantity purchasing system which is a host computer that a user may access to purchase quantities of goods or services at a locked-in price for later redemption. The preferred communication means employed is via secure, high-speed Internet access. Data storage is electronic. Users employ the system to make an instant purchase of a small or large quantity of a commodity, such as gasoline at the current purchase price. Users can redeem all or part of their balance for real product at a physical location in the future when desired. The redemption will draw down the user'"'"'s account balance at the locked-in purchase price, so the user is able to circumvent the market price in effect at the time of redemption.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1-24. -24. (canceled)
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25. A system, comprising:
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a database including information about at least one commodity including quantity units and a current time unit purchase price; and a web server computer for interacting with the database and also for interacting with at least one client computer configured to be used by a purchaser, the web server computer designed to allow the purchaser to; establish a bulk refillable account capable of having a balance in quantity units for the commodity; perform an electronic purchase transaction that results in the system recording financial data for payment for the commodity and obtaining payment approval from a financial institution, the purchase transaction comprising the purchase of a quantity of the commodity at a posted and locked-in current time unit purchase price particular to a certain purchase zone, the purchase transaction resulting in the purchased quantity being summed with the quantity account balance and thus an increase in the balance of quantity units of the commodity in the account; and identify a redemption zone different than the purchase zone, the redemption zone identification resulting in an automatic conversion of at least a portion of the balance of quantity units in the account into a different amount of quantity units available for redemption in the redemption zone, the system subtracting from the balance for any quantity units of the commodity that are redeemed. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A system, comprising:
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a database including information about at least one commodity including quantity units and a current time unit purchase price; and a web server computer for interacting with the database and also for interacting with at least one client computer configured to be used by a purchaser, the web server computer designed to allow the purchaser to; establish a bulk refillable account capable of having a balance in quantity units for the commodity; perform an electronic purchase transaction that results in the system recording financial data for payment for the commodity and obtaining payment approval from a financial institution, the purchase transaction comprising the purchase of a quantity of the commodity at a posted and locked-in current time unit purchase price particular to a certain purchase zone, the purchase transaction resulting in the purchased quantity being summed with the quantity account balance and thus an increase in the balance of quantity units of the commodity in the account; and redeem at least a portion of the quantity account balance in the purchase zone for a quantity of a physical commodity in a redemption zone different than the purchase zone, the system automatically converting the quantity of commodity redeemed and subtracting from the balance for any converted quantity units of the commodity that are redeemed. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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Specification