Method and Apparatus For Facilitating Sales of Goods By Independent Parties

Abstract

A method for facilitating sales and pricing of independent parties' goods. The method removes price control from buyers and sellers by deriving a sale price from an index price using a method set by either the seller or a third party. The index price is provided by a party other than the buyer or seller. The sale price may be derived at a time of sale or at a time of registering the good for sale. The standard ID code of readily identifiable, fungible, durable goods is used by sellers to identify used goods to the marketeer. The marketeer exploits the nature of such goods by choosing the price of a comparable new good as an index price and deriving a discounted sale price for the used good from the price of a new good having essentially the same value due to its fungible, durable nature. A best price for a good is ensured by using as the index price a lowest price among a group of vendors for a comparable good. In a computer-implemented version of the method, a shopping agent program is used to query one or more vendors to determine a best price for a comparable good and a pricing agent program is used to derive a discounted sale price for the good from the best price for the new good. An apparatus for performing a computer-implemented version of the inventive method is also provided.

1 . A computer-implemented method for pricing an independent seller's good using a marketeer controller capable of communicating with a buyer interface and a seller interface via a communications network, the marketeer controller including a CPU and a memory operatively connected to the CPU and containing a program stored in the memory and executable by said CPU for deriving a sale price of the good, the method comprising the steps of:
 (a) receiving from the seller, via the communications network, an expression of interest in selling the good;   (b) querying a vendor's controller to determine the vendor's price of a comparable good; and   (c) executing the program to derive the sale price for the good from the vendor's price using a predetermined method.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step (d) comprises the step of:
 (d) equating an index price to the vendor's price of the comparable good.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the seller's good is a used, fungible, durable good and the comparable good is a similar new good. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein step (b) is performed responsive to step (a). 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising the step of:
 (e) receiving from the buyer, via the communications network, an expression of interest in purchasing the good, step (b) being performed responsive to step (e).   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the expression of interest received in step (a) is a standard identification code identifying the good, the method further comprising the step of:
 (f) storing the identification code in the memory to register the good with a marketeer as an item for sale by the seller, step (f) being performed before step (b).   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the identification code comprises a universal product code (UPC). 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the identification code comprises an International Standard Book Number (ISBN). 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising the steps of:
 (g) presenting the good in a marketplace as an item for sale at an unidentified price, the marketplace being accessible by a buyer using a buyer interface via the communications network, step (g) being performed before step (e); and   (h) presenting the good for sale in the marketplace at the sale price, step (h) being performed after step (c).   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the marketplace is a website. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the communications network is a publicly accessible communications network. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising the step of:
 (i) receiving from the seller data specifying the predetermined method, step (i) being performed before step (c).   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the predetermined method comprises discounting the index price for a comparable good by approximately fifty percent to determine the sale price for the seller's good. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein:
 step (b) comprises querying multiple third parties to determine multiple third party prices of the comparable good; and   step (d) comprises equating the index price to the lowest of the multiple third party prices determined in step (b).   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the predetermined method is set by the marketeer. 
     
     
         16 . 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 network interface device operatively connected to the CPU for communicating with a seller interface and a vendor's controller via a communications network;   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 of a comparable good similar 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 of the good from the index price using a predetermined method.   
     
     
         17 . The marketeer controller of  claim 16 , further comprising a second program stored in the memory for receiving data from a buyer representing the buyer's interest in purchasing the good, wherein the shopping agent program is executed responsive to receipt of data representing the buyer's interest in purchasing the good. 
     
     
         18 . The marketeer controller of  claim 17 , wherein the shopping agent program is configured to use the standard identification code to query the vendor's controller. 
     
     
         19 . The marketeer controller of  claim 18 , wherein the shopping agent program is configured to query multiple vendor controllers to determine multiple vendor prices for the comparable good and to equate the index price to the lowest of the multiple vendor prices. 
     
     
         20 . The marketeer controller of  claim 19 , wherein the predetermined method used by the pricing agent program is specified by the marketeer controller. 
     
     
         21 . The marketeer controller of  claim 19 , wherein the seller specifies the predetermined method used by the pricing agent program and the first program receives and stores in the memory data indicating the predetermined method. 
     
     
         22 . The marketeer controller of  claim 21 , wherein the predetermined method comprises discounting the index price for a comparable good by approximately fifty percent to determine the sale price for the seller's good. 
     
     
         23 . The marketeer controller of  claim 22 , further comprising a third program for presenting the good for sale at the sale price. 
     
     
         24 . A method for pricing an independent seller's used good comprising the steps of:
 (a) receiving an expression of a seller's interest in selling the good;   (b) querying a vendor to determine the vendor's price for a comparable new good; and   (c) deriving a sale price for the used good from the vendor's price for the new good, using a predetermined method.   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , further comprising the step of:
 (d) receiving from a seller a standard identification code identifying a good.   
     
     
         26 . A method for facilitating sale of an independent seller's used good by a marketeer comprising the steps of:
 (a) receiving from a seller a standard identification code identifying a good;   (b) obtaining the seller's agreement to sell the good at a price determined by a marketeer using a predetermined method;   (c) receiving from the buyer an expression of interest in purchasing the good;   (d) determining an index price equal to a vendor's price for a comparable new good;   (e) deriving a sale price for the used good from the index price using the predetermined method; and   (f) presenting the good for sale at the sale price.   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26 , further comprising the steps of:
 (g) receiving an indication that the buyer wishes to buy the good at the sale price;   (h) identifying the seller to the buyer and the buyer to the seller so that the seller may sell the good to the buyer.   
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 26 , further comprising the steps of:
 (i) receiving an indication that the buyer wishes to buy the good at the sale price;   (j) aiding sale of the good by acting as a clearinghouse by receiving the good from the seller, receiving payment in the amount of the sale price from the buyer, and then shipping the good to the buyer and providing compensation to the seller.   
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the marketeer retains a portion of the sale price. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 26 , further comprising the steps of:
 (k) receiving an indication that the buyer wishes to buy the good at the sale price;   (l) aiding sale of the good by referring the buyer and the seller to an intermediary acting as a clearinghouse.   
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the marketeer acts as a clearinghouse by receiving the good from the seller, receiving payment in the amount of the sale price from the buyer, and then shipping the good to the buyer and proving compensation to the seller. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31 , wherein the marketeer receives a portion of the sale price. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the method is a computer implemented method and steps (a) through (f) are performed by computer programs communicating via a communications network. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein step (d) is performed responsive to step (a). 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein step (d) is performed responsive to step (b). 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein step (d) is performed responsive to step (c).