Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Electronic shopping
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-19
2001-03-13
Teska, Kevin J. (Department: 2161)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Electronic shopping
C705S026640, C705S037000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06202051
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to used and collectible goods offered for sale by an electronic network of consignment stores. More specifically, the present invention may be an electronic “market maker” for collectable and used goods, a means for electronic “presentment” of goods for sale, and an electronic agent to search the network for hard to find goods. In a second embodiment to the present invention, a low cost posting terminal allows the virtual presentment of goods to market and establishes a two tiered market of retail and wholesale sales.
Certain items and used goods have a large following of collectors. These items include baseball cards, dolls, pens, watches, comic books, stamps, coins, and the like. It is well known to establish shops specializing in these items. It is also well-known to establish boards for the sale of used goods. And is known to sell new goods on a special television channel like the Home Shopping Channel.
The prior art does not provide a means to electronically market used goods or provide an avenue to allow participants to speculate on the price of collectable or used goods in an electronic market place. Moreover, the art does not show a way for small to medium size business to use a low cost posting terminal in conjunction with a market maker computer to collectively create a virtual market for used and collectible goods. Thus, to address the short comings of the art the present invention has the following objectives:
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To establish a low cost computer means for a used good and/or consignment stores to establish a “trusted” computerized market for used and collectible goods.
To establish a computer means to administrate and provide inventory tracking to used good and/or consignment stores when the stores make a virtual presentment of a good to a computerized market and the good is sold at the virtual market and/or the good is sold through the store front.
To establish a computer means to double tier a computerized market for goods, where the first tier is a retail price and the second tier is a wholesale or dealer to dealer price and an authorized dealer has pre-approved access to the dealer-to-dealer price and may charge and display the retail price to a local store customer.
To establish a computer means for archiving records of transactions in a computerized market for collectible and used goods and distributing the archive to computer terminals that may then research and analyze valuation and price trends of collectible and used goods in the computerized market.
To establish a computer means for a used good store or consignment store to sell used goods and collectibles electronically and to provide the automatic electronic re-sale of goods purchased.
To establish a market for goods with a dominant electronic “market maker” node to allow collectors to speculate on the collectable goods market.
To provide the excitement of a “live” auction house type atmosphere to remote participants in a electronic auction.
To provide data analysis to the market makers of collectable good or consignment node users on the price, price movements, and quantity of collectable goods in the virtual market.
To provide an electronic agent interface for participants to search a plurality of consignment nodes to search for a used good or collectable item.
To provide a means to track down the owner of a particular used or collectable good.
Further, to provide a trusted network of consignment nodes that act as brokers to provide a means to electronically present a used good or collectable to an electronic market.
The foregoing objects and advantages of the invention are illustrative of those which can be achieved by the present invention and are not intended to be exhaustive or limiting of the possible advantages which can be realized. Thus, these and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description herein or can be learned from practicing the invention, both as embodied herein or as modified in view of any variations which may be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly the present invention resided in the novel methods, arrangements, combinations and improvements herein shown and described.
The present invention is a network of consignment nodes and a low cost easy to use posting terminal for the virtual presentment of goods to market. A consignment node is a computer database of used goods preferably operated by a used good, collectable shop keeper or a bailee. A posting terminal is a low cost easy to use computer and computer peripheral devices used by a small store owner to present goods to a computerized marker and track the sales of goods and control the posted inventory. All consignment nodes users or operators, hereinafter users, are “trusted” licensees or franchisers of the software and hardware necessary to create and operate a consignment node. Thus, the network provides a trusted means for consignment node users, e.g. shop keepers, to establish electronic markets for collectable goods, establish electronic auctions, establish a means for searching each others shops to locate hard to find collectibles items, and a means to electronically present goods to a market. The present invention will allow, or license, certain consignments nodes to become a dominant market maker for a particular class of goods, for example, a consignment node franchise may be given the rights to establish the dominant market for collectable antique pens. It is understood, a central market maker computer may be virtually divided into different markets with posting terminals used as the means for the market to obtain virtual title goods. Other consignment nodes, after taking physical possession of a good, may make an electronic presentment of that good to such a dominant consignment node market. Thus, a local collector of antique pens may bring a pen to a convenient consignment node in Smalltown, USA, the consignment network would allow this collector to electronically “present” his pen to the dominant market make node for antique pens in for example, Chicago. Participants, e.g. customers and collectors (hereinafter “participants”), may reach a dominant node's market, or any other consignment nodes electronic store, from his or her home by logging on from a PC located at the participant's home to their locally operated consignment node and reaching the distant consignment node through the network of consignment nodes. Thus, each consignment node user, e.g. shop keeper, has a potential participant, i.e. customer base, of all consignment node participants. In other words, a potentially huge customer base that incurs the minimal cost of a local consignment node connection may reach any other consignment node through the consignment node network. And local collector's may economically participate in the collectable markets by using local access to a convenient consignment node “trusted” bailee, and electronically presenting collectable goods to an electronic market.
A consignment node in a simple form may have a computer
10
, a digital camera
12
, a bar code scanner
14
, a display
16
, a printer
20
, a keyboard
18
, a database
22
and a network connection
26
collectively called hereinafter a consignment node. The present invention also has a user interface application program to execute an a user or participant's data terminal
28
.
The consignment node may have four modes of operation: a software download mode, an auction mode, a market mode, and an agent mode. The software download mode allows a participant to log into the consignment node and receive a download of a participant interface application program. The auction mode allows a participant, from the participant interface application program, to log into a consignment node to partake in an electronic auction. The market mode allows a participant with the participant interface program to log into a consignment node to browse the consignment node database to search for a used or collectable good. The agent mode
Burns Doane Swecker & Mathis L.L.P.
Merc Exchange LLC
Smith Demetra R.
Teska Kevin J.
LandOfFree
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