Introducing a fixed-price transaction mechanism in conjunction with an auction transaction mechanism

• US 20050027641A1
• Filed: 12/30/2003
• Published: 02/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Edson, Zak J., Grove, Brian Alan, Grove, Steve, Sandler, Andrew Leigh
• Granted Patent: US 7,593,866 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

An auction price-setting method to present an auction price-setting process and a fixed price process to provide a fixed price offer for an item and to publish the fixed price offer on a listing based on a criteria.

Claims

1. A network-based commerce system including:

a processor coupled to a memory through a bus; and

a fixed price-setting process executed from the memory by the processor to cause the processor to facilitate the operation of a network-based auction price setting process for a listing of an item, to provide a fixed price offer for the item and to publish the fixed-price offer on the listing based on a criteria.

2. The network-based commerce system of claim 1, wherein the fixed-price offer is higher than a current highest bid.

3. The network-based commerce system of claim 1, wherein the fixed-price offer is lower than a high proxy bid.

4. The network-based commerce system of claim 3, wherein the fixed-price-setting process further causes the processor to automatically designate a buyer associated with the high proxy bid as the winner of the auctioned item.

5. The network-based commerce system of claim 4, wherein the automatic designation is performed when the buyer has opted into being designated the winner automatically.

6. The network-based commerce system of claim 3,wherein the fixed price-setting process further causes the processor to automatically notify a buyer associated with the current high proxy bid upon the publication of the fixed price offer.

7. The network-based commerce system of claim 1 wherein the publication the fixed price offer includes the publication of the fixed price offer when a bid has reached a certain value during the auction.

8. A network-based commerce system including:

a means for facilitating the operation of a network-based auction price setting process for a listing of an item;

a means for providing a fixed price offer for the item; and

a means for publishing the fixed-price offer on the listing based on a criteria.

9. The network-based commerce system of claim 8, wherein the fixed-price offer is higher than a current highest bid.

10. The network-based commerce system of claim 8, wherein the fixed-price offer is lower than a high proxy bid.

11. The network-based commerce system of claim 10, further including:

a means for automatically designating a buyer associated with the high proxy bid as the winner of the auctioned item.

12. The network-based commerce system of claim 11, wherein the means for automatically designating is performed when the buyer has opted into being designated the winner automatically.

13. The network-based commerce system of claim 10, further including:

a means for automatically notifying a buyer associated with the current high proxy bid upon the publication of the fixed price offer.

14. The network-based commerce system of claim 8, wherein the means for publishing the fixed price offer includes publishing the fixed price offer when a bid has reached a certain value during the auction.

15. A machine-readable medium having instructions to cause a machine to perform a method to facilitate operation of a network-based commerce system, the method including:

facilitating the operation of a network-based auction price setting process for a listing of an item;

providing a fixed price offer for the item; and

publishing the fixed-price offer on the listing based on a criteria.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the fixed-price offer is higher than a current highest bid.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the fixed-price offer is lower than a high proxy bid.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, further including:

automatically designating a buyer associated with the high proxy bid as the winner of the auctioned item.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the automatically designating is performed when the buyer has opted into being designated the winner automatically.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, further including:

automatically notifying a buyer associated with the current high proxy bid upon the publication of the fixed price offer.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the publishing the fixed price offer includes publishing the fixed price offer when a bid has reached a certain value during the auction.

22. A method to facilitate operation of a network-based commerce system, the method including:

facilitating the operation of a network-based auction price setting process for a listing of an item;

providing a fixed price offer for the item; and

publishing the fixed-price offer on the listing based on a criteria.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the fixed-price offer is higher than a current highest bid.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the fixed-price offer is lower than a high proxy bid.

25. The method of claim 24, further including:

automatically designating a buyer associated with the high proxy bid as the winner of the auctioned item.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the automatically designating is performed when the buyer has opted into being designated the winner automatically.

27. The method of claim 24, further including:

automatically notifying a buyer associated with the current high proxy bid upon the publication of the fixed price offer.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein the publishing the fixed price offer includes publishing the fixed price offer when a bid has reached a certain value during the auction.