U.S. patent application number 10/740151 was filed with the patent office on 2004-07-08 for consignment nodes.
This patent application is currently assigned to MercExchange, LLC, a Virginia corporation. Invention is credited to Woolston, Thomas G..
Application Number | 20040133512 10/740151 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 23696428 |
Filed Date | 2004-07-08 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040133512 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Woolston, Thomas G. |
July 8, 2004 |
Consignment nodes
Abstract
A method and apparatus for creating a computerized market for
used and collectible goods by allowing the electronic present of
goods from one market to another in a trusted network, allowing the
electronic auctioning of goods, enabling an electronic agent to
search the markets for locate a good, and enabling an electronic
agent to search for the owner of a hard to find good.
Inventors: |
Woolston, Thomas G.;
(Arlington, VA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
FISH & RICHARDSON, PC
12390 EL CAMINO REAL
SAN DIEGO
CA
92130-2081
US
|
Assignee: |
MercExchange, LLC, a Virginia
corporation
|
Family ID: |
23696428 |
Appl. No.: |
10/740151 |
Filed: |
December 17, 2003 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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10740151 |
Dec 17, 2003 |
|
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08427820 |
Apr 26, 1995 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/39 ;
705/42 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/06 20130101;
G06Q 30/08 20130101; G06Q 20/108 20130101; G06Q 30/0623 20130101;
G06Q 20/10 20130101; G06Q 30/0635 20130101; G06Q 30/0633 20130101;
G06Q 20/12 20130101; G06Q 40/04 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/039 ;
705/042 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/60 |
Claims
1. An Internet-based transactional system for establishing multiple
participant accounts that can be debited or credited corresponding
to funds used or generated by participant transactions in the
transactional system, the transactional system clearing
transactions by connecting a participant to a participant account
and transferring funds from an account associated with a
participant acting as a buyer in the transactional system to an
account associated with a participant acting as a seller in the
transactional system, wherein the transaction is based at least in
part on the seller participant posting a unique item for sale in an
ascending bid auction format and the buyer participant authorizing
a transfer of funds in response to winning the unique item for sale
in the ascending bid auction format, the transactional system
clearing the transaction by debiting the account associated with
the buyer participant and crediting the account for the participant
acting as the seller, the transactional system comprising: (a) a
computer system in communication with the Internet and capable of
executing a plurality of substantially simultaneous processes; (b)
one or more processes executing on the computer system operable to
perform the following: (i) establish multiple participant accounts
based on information received from multiple participants, the
multiple participant account balances capable of being debited or
credited with funds used or generated with participant transactions
in the transactional system; (ii) initiate an ascending bid format
auction instance based on information received from a seller
participant, each auction instance describing an unique item
offered for sale in an ascending bid auction format; (iii)
connecting a buyer participant to at least one account maintained
by the transactional system and associated with the buyer
participant; and (iv) clearing the transaction between the buyer
participant with the seller participant by debiting the account
associated with the buyer participant and crediting the account for
the seller participant, the transaction between the buyer
participant and the seller participant being based at least in part
on a result of the buyer participant winning the unique item in the
ascending bid format auction instance initiated based on the
information received the seller participant.
2. The Internet-based transactional system of claim 1 wherein the
initiated auction instance comprises an independent auction
instance executing substantially simultaneously with a plurality of
other auction instances.
3. The Internet-based transactional system of claim 2 wherein the
plurality of auction instances correspond to a plurality of
unrelated items.
4. The Internet-based transactional system of claim 2 wherein the
plurality of auction instances correspond to unrelated participants
acting as seller participants.
5. The Internet-based transactional system of claim 1 further
comprising one or more processes to post the unique item by
electronic presentment from a seller participant, the electronic
presentment including an item description, and wherein the
transactional system provides a unique code to confirm an auction
listing.
6. The Internet-based transactional system of claim 1 wherein the
transactional system charges a fee for the transaction between
participants.
7. The Internet-based transactional system of claim 1 wherein the
fee charged comprises a percentage of the final sales price of the
item being auctioned.
8. The Internet-based transactional system of claim 1 wherein: the
transactional system is under a first entity's control; the
information describing the item offered for auction is received
from a computer system independently operated by the participant
acting as the seller; and the auction instance for the seller
participant is initiated while the item remains outside the first
entity's possession.
9. The Internet-based transactional system of claim 8 wherein the
auction instance is initiated while the item remains outside the
first entity's control.
10. The Internet-based transaction system of claim 1 wherein the
auction instance for the seller participant is initiated while the
item remains in the seller participant's control.
11. The Internet-based transactional system of claim 1 wherein a
participant can act as a buyer participant in one transaction and
as a seller participant in another transaction.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 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.
[0002] 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.
[0003] 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. Thus, to address the short comings of the
art the present invention has the following objectives:
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] 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.
[0005] To establish a market for goods with a dominant electronic
"market maker" node to allow collectors to speculate on the
collectable goods market.
[0006] To provide the excitement of a "live" auction house type
atmosphere to remote participants in a electronic auction.
[0007] 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.
[0008] To provide an electronic agent interface for participants to
search a plurality of consignment nodes to search for a used good
or collectable item.
[0009] To provide a means to track down the owner of a particular
used or collectable good.
[0010] Further, to provide a trusted network of consignment nodes
to provide a means to electronically present a used good or
collectable to an electronic market.
[0011] The present invention is a network of consignment nodes. A
consignment node is a computer database of used goods preferably
operated is by a used good, collectable shop keeper or a bailee.
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. 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
small town, 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 a dominant market.
[0012] 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.
[0013] 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 allows a participant to log into a consignment node to
formulate a search request for a particular used good or
collectable. The consignment node may search its own database for
the requested good and/or generate agents to search and report back
a search request of other consignment nodes.
[0014] The present invention may allow a participant to
electronically purchase goods from a consignment node and to select
whether the good should be shipped to a participant designed
location or the participant may take electronic legal ownership of
a good and post a new participant defined offer or reserve price.
By the interaction of a plurality of participants buying and
selling collectibles on a consignment node, posting "buy at" and
"sell at" quantities and prices the consignment node may establish
a market or become a "market maker" for collectable goods. A
participant may also elect to electronically transfer or present a
good to a different consignment node or market. This allows a
participant to speculate with collectable goods on the consignment
node network's different markets and not incur the shipping costs
with physically moving the goods, while providing a trusted means
to assure potential buyers of the good's bona fide
availability.
[0015] The consignment node operator or purveyor, hereinafter
referred to as the consignment node user, establishes his
consignment node by creating a database of used goods or
collectibles, hereinafter the term "goods" shall be used to reflect
used goods, new goods and collectibles. The user takes the first
good to be put on the database and invokes the consignment node
software to create a data record. For example, the user owns a
baseball card collector shop and the user wants to post his Babe
Ruth collection. The user in this instance invokes the consignment
node to "build the database mode" and the invention initializes the
digital camera 15. The user then "photographs" or digitizes the
image of the particular Babe Ruth card. The consignment system then
displays an empty database record on the display to accept text
information concerning the card.
[0016] The user fills out the display record with information
concerning the particular Babe Ruth card. The consignment node
verifies that enough information has been filled out in the
displayed computer record, as well known to the electronic database
arts, and accepts the record. It should be noted that the
consignment node database record has data fields for the
consignment node user to add value to his consignment node postings
with subjective information such as condition of the card, special
features such as autographed by Babe Ruth, and the like. Thus, the
consignment node user may build business goodwill into his
particular consignment node operation by establishing his own
particular subjectivity and quality standards in item postings.
[0017] After the data record or the particular Babe Ruth card is
accepted by the consignment node the system may print out a bar
code label on the printer 20. The user may then put the particular
Babe Ruth card into a plastic bag and, affix the bar code label to
the bag. The bar code labeling system becomes a useful inventory
management tool discussed below.
[0018] It is understood in this first example that the consignment
node user is the legal and equitable owner of the Babe Ruth card
and that the user posted a reserve or offer price on the particular
card at his posting. In a second illustrative example, a local
resident would like to post, for example, his Frank Robinson
baseball card. The resident brings his Frank Robinson card to the
baseball card store and tells the consignment node user he would
like to offer his Frank Robinson card for a consignment sale.
Again, the consignment node user invokes the system database
posting mode and "photographs" the Frank Robinson card with digital
camera 12. As above, the user fills in the system generated display
prompt for information concerning the Frank Robinson card. The
resident informs the user of the reserve or offer price and signs
or agrees to a consignment contract with the consignment node user
to accept the consignment terms to pay the consignment node user on
the sale of the card, for example 6%, of sales price as a
consignment fee. Again, the system may print the appropriate bar
code for the Frank Robinson card. The consignment node user then
takes possession of the card and may affix the bar code label to an
appropriate cardholder. It should be noted by the consignment node
user may again "add value" to his consignment node by entering
subjective criteria in the database entry for authenticity,
condition, special attributes and the like. The participant or
local resident may now electronically present his Frank Robinson
card to any consignment node, consignment node auction or
consignment node market maker in the consignment node network.
[0019] These processes may be repeated again and again to establish
a substantial database of goods for sale. It should be noted that
the consignment node user may at his discretion take postings from
reputable dealers or collectors via a facsimile machine or other
forms of electronic or verbal presentment of a good for sale. It is
within the sound discretion of an individual consignment node user
to establish these practices. It is within the scope of the
invention, however, to take electronic postings from other
consignment node users or individuals over the network, as
discussed below. Each consignment node user may be a franchisee of
a central franchiser and the franchiser may police the network to
give quality control, detect fraud and revoke the franchises or
licenses of poor quality consignment node users. Thus, the
consignment node is a "trusted" network for consignment node users
providing value to the network by imposing a quality and
performance structure on the consignment nodes.
[0020] The Sale
[0021] A buyer, hereinafter participant, may electronically log
onto a consignment node via a network connection by use of a PC
with participant interface software, through an interactive
television application, workstation or the like. The network
connection drivers for the consignment node are discussed in detail
below. The participant may enter the browse node and peruse the
consignment node database of goods. It is understood that the
participant may receive the image taken with a digital camera 12 of
the goods at the participant terminal. The participant, upon
finding for example the above-posted Frank Robinson card may decide
to purchase the card. The participant may present electronic
payment to the consignment node by entering a credit card number
and expiration date or other forms of electronic payment. It is
understood that a secure and/or encrypted means may be established
between a participant's interface application and a consignment
node to transfer sensitive or theft prone information. Moreover, a
participant may establish an account with his local consignment
node to be debited and credited with the funds used and generated
with his transactions.
[0022] The consignment node may, for example, clear the transaction
by charging the participant's charge card account and crediting the
consignment node store account by well-known credit card clearing
techniques. After the consignment node has cleared the transaction
the system electronically transfers ownership of the Frank Robinson
card to the participant. The participant may then be presented with
the choice of directing the delivery of the Frank Robinson card to
a desired location or may choose to post a new reserve or offer
price for the card and direct the card to remain in the possession
of the consignment node user. Thus, the consignment node allows a
participant to speculate on the price of the Frank Robinson card
and establishes an electronic market for the Frank Robinson card.
It is understood that the consignment node may have many Frank
Robinson cards available, thus by the interaction of collectors
electronically buying and selling the collectibles it will
establish a market price for a Frank Robinson card or any other
good. For each transaction, the consignment node user extracts the
small consignment fee, e.g., 6% of the sales price, thus the
consignment node user directly benefits from operating a reputable
consignment node. If the participant elects to take delivery of the
purchased goods then the consignment node may track the delivery
and ownership of this good to this particular participant in a data
record. This data record may be useful to speed the posting of the
good, should the participant later decide to re-post and sell the
good, and it also creates a valuable database of records to track
the possession and ownership of a collectable. This feature may be
useful in the agent mode, e.g., tracking down very hard to find
items, discussed more fully below.
[0023] The Auction
[0024] For a rare good, a good in a volatile market, or a good's
initial posting the consignment node user or participant may wish
to auction the good, with or without reserve, to the highest
bidder. In this mode, the good may be posted on the consignment
node by the means described above but the data record representing
the good is identified as waiting for an auction date and may not
be purchased on the electronic market. Alternatively, an item may
be in the electronic market of the consignment node with a high
reserve price that may be lowered in the auction or liquidation
mode. Here the consignment node user or the good's participant
owner may enter a protected data field a confidential reserve price
for the auction mode. The consignment node user arranges by
invoking the appropriate consignment node program a time and date
for an electronic auction. The consignment node user or good's
participant owner may establish, in a data record that represents
the good, a desire for the item to be auctioned. For example, a
pawnshop operator of a consignment node may have several Rolex
watches he wishes to auction with reserve this Saturday night at
7:00 p.m. The consignment node user, here a pawnshop, identifies on
the Rolex watch records the auction date and the confidential
reserve price. The consignment node system may "advertise" auction
dates, items and auction terms in the consignment node log on
welcome message discussed below. Moreover, a good that is
identified as awaiting an auction date may be viewed before auction
in the consignment node browse mode by a perspective auction
participant.
[0025] At the auction date, perspective participants log onto the
consignment node auction mode locally or through the consignment
node network and await the first good to be auctioned. It is
understood that in the best mode of the invention the participant
will have a data terminal with a digital to analog converter such
as a "sound blaster" and speaker, the digital to analog capability
may be used in the auction mode to bring the aural excitement of an
auction, e.g., the call of the heckler, the caller and bidders,
home to the auction participant. This is discussed in more detail
below.
[0026] The consignment node takes the first item to be auctioned
and posts the image of the good and the good's text record to the
participants. The consignment node then posts the opening bid. It
is understood that the bid postings may be in a protocol that
invokes the generation of an auctioneer's voice at the participant
terminals. The participants may then respond with a higher bid. The
consignment node mode scans electronically the participants for
bids and accepts the highest bid. If bids are tied the consignment
node may take the first highest bid by the participants log on
order. A particular bidding participant receives a special
acknowledgment from the consignment node that her bid was accepted.
The consignment node then posts the higher bid to all the
electronic auction participants. The consignment node repeats this
process until no higher bid is received for a predetermined amount
of time and closes the auctioning of that particular good. The
consignment node then checks whether the highest bid received is
greater than the reserve price, if appropriate. The consignment
node may then post sold! and the sell price to all participant
terminals and proceed to post the next item for auction. Again a
successful purchaser may elect to direct delivery of the good or
post the good on the electronic market at a new participant
determined offer price.
[0027] It is understood that the terms of the auction sale are
posted and agreed to by the participants before allowing a
participant to bid on goods in compliance with local requirements
and statutes. It is also understood that a participant may make
electronic payment for the goods or establish a line of credit or
collect on delivery terms within a particular consignment node
user's discretion. This may be established by a relationship
between a local consignment node user and a local participant at
the local consignment user's discretion.
[0028] It should be noted that a consignment node user may sell
virtual advertising space or a central master node e.g., the
franchiser, may coordinate the sale of advertising space on a pool
of consignment nodes to reach target market participants. For
example, if a participant has purchased or speculated in antique
pens, and advertisers of an antique pen specially consignment node
wishes to target market individuals on the network who have
purchased collectable pens in the past. A central coordinated
master node may sell advertising to an advertiser for the log on
message or e-mail targeted participants and users. Thus, the
network of consignment nodes can establish a market for target
marketing or blanketed advertising of goods and services sold
locally or on a network level by a central node.
[0029] The Agent
[0030] The Agent Mode allows a consignment node participant to
search a plurality of consignment nodes and purchase records for a
used good. A participant may log onto his local consignment node to
shop. This participant, for example, may be interested in
purchasing a particular used coin for her collection. The
participant may invoke a consignment node Agent to search the
network of consignment nodes for this coin. The participant fills
in the search parameters for this coin, for example, a 1872 U.S.
penny from the Denver Mint. The consignment node Agent task handler
verifies the Agent form is sufficiently filled out and accepts the
task. The Agent checks a list of other consignment nodes network
addresses kept by the local consignment node database and generates
an Agent communication message to each consignment node on the list
and begins to establish communications to the other consignment
nodes. An Agent message between consignment nodes begins by
coordinating or reconciling the database on each consignment node
of the locations and/or address of other consignment nodes. If a
consignment node has a different list of consignment nodes in its
database it will pass the node update information to the other
consignment node. The consignment node originating the Agent task
will generate a new Agent task to accommodate the information
concerning the new consignment node. Once the consignment node
database of consignment nodes is reconciled, the Agent will search
the consignment node database for the goods requested. The Agent
will report back whether the search of the local market database
was successful and how many good that matches the Agent search
request it found. An Agent may also search the consignment node
database of past transactions to identify an owner of a particular
good. The Agent may then report that John Doe of Main Street,
U.S.A. was the last known purchaser of a 1872 U.S. penny from the
Denver Mint at this node. It is understood that differing levels of
privacy are available to consignment node purchasers, so as only
allowing the local consignment node user to view past purchaser
information and/or provide the Agent with an option of contacting
that consignment user so he may contact the prior purchaser, thus,
protecting privacy while allowing bona fide offers to reach the
prior purchaser in confidence.
[0031] Once some of the Agents start reporting back to the Agent
originating consignment node, the originating consignment node may
report the results to the consignment node participant of the
Agents' results. Such results may give the total number of matching
items found thus providing the local participant/collector an
indication of the depth of this market. It is understood that a
local consignment node user may charge participants for Agent
requests.
[0032] Computer Implementation
[0033] In the preferred embodiment of the present invention a
consignment node may use a multitasking operating system such as
UNIX, OS/2 or VMS. However, a Microsoft DOS or Windows
implementation is within the scope of the present invention. The
consignment node may be networked via TCP/IP and the internet or a
private TCP/IP network or X.25 private or public network or service
providers network of ISDN, ATM and the like. It is understood, that
a consignment node may support a plurality of protocols
simultaneously. Moreover, it is understood that the participant
interface application program may execute on a wide variety of
platforms such as PC's, MAC's, Power PC's, workstations, cable
set-top boxes, video game hardware and the like and are within the
scope of the present invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0034] FIG. 1 shows the consignment node of the present invention
may have a computer 10, a data storage device 22, a tape drive 24,
a digital camera 12, a bar code scanner 14, a display 16, a
keyboard 18, a laser printer 20, and a network connection 26. A
participant user terminal is shown at 28.
[0035] FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram showing the logic
flow of a user log in at a consignment node.
[0036] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the logical flow of
the consignment node auction process.
[0037] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the logical flow of
the consignment node market or browse mode.
[0038] FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram showing the logical flow
for posting a new used good on the consignment node.
[0039] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a subroutine that may be
used to post auction bids.
[0040] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a subroutine that may be
used by the consignment node auction process to receive participant
auction bids.
[0041] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the logical flow for a
subroutine that may be used to transfer ownership of an item.
[0042] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing the logical flow for a
consignment node in-store sale of a good.
[0043] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing the logical flow of
post-processing and analyzing consignment node sales.
[0044] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing the logical flow of
the consignment node Agent handler subroutine.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0045] It is understood that the get session identification
procedure 100 is a routine that monitors the communication ports
and virtual communication ports residing on a protocol stack. The
consignment node may use, for example, a X.25 interface card,
available from Eicon Corporation or Frontier Corporation to execute
an X.25 protocol stack in a PC workstation. The get session
identification 100 program may monitor the X.25 protocol for
incoming calls. If the program identifies an incoming call it may
answer the call by transmitting the appropriate X.25 packet to the
network on the appropriate virtual channel. It is understood that
other protocols, such as TCP/IP, DECNET, SNA and ATM are within the
scope of the present invention and that multiple protocol stacks
may simultaneously execute in a consignment node. Therefore, the
get session identification program 100 may have multiple instances
to connect and monitor the various protocols. After the get session
identification 100 has appropriately answered an incoming call to
the consignment node, it may invoke the display welcome message and
menu routine 102.
[0046] It is understood that the get session identification 100
provides sufficient information to the display welcome message and
menu 102 to allow the display welcome message and menu 102 to
connect to the appropriate session or virtual channel. At this
juncture, if the participant is using an approved interface
program, the interface program will send a predetermined code to
indicate its version and other characteristics of its display
driver. If a participant is logging in from a TTY terminal or other
terminal the display welcome message and menu 102 may detect this
information and send the appropriate TTY welcome message. It is
understood that the welcome message is viewed by the consignment
node user as virtual advertising space that may be sold by the
consignment node user or coordinated with the master control node
(discussed in detail below). The participant may respond to the
display welcome message and menu 102 program by giving an
appropriate log on response 104. The get log on response 104 may
verify and grant a level of access privileges to the participant.
It is understood that the consignment node user may require the get
log in response 104 to retrieve a credit card number, pin number,
user ID and the like, to grant access privileges. If a participant
is using a TTY terminal those sessions may be shunted to the
download interface program (DIP) 106 routine to receive an
appropriate interface program from the consignment node. The DIP
106 may present a list of choices as to what version interface
program should be downloaded, such as DOS, Windows, UNIX, MAC
platforms and what transfer program is desired such as Kermit,
Xmodem, FTP and the like. A participant with a participant
interface program may also elect to receive a new interface program
from the DIP 106. It is understood that an older, no longer
supported interface program participant may be shunted to the DIP
106 to receive a new interface program.
[0047] A participant with a supported interface program may select
the auction 108, market 110 or agent handler 112 sections of the
consignment node. If a participant selects auction 108 the
participant may be presented with a menu of auction selections such
as auctions in session, future auction times, dates, locations and
topics, and auction preview. If a participant selects auctions in
session the participants' session is passed to the appropriate
auction handler, as discussed below. If a participant selects
future auctions the participant will be given a list of future
auction times, dates, terms, locations and topics of auctions on
this and other consignment nodes. It is understood that these
displays represent a virtual advertising opportunity for the
consignment node user and the advertising space may be sold by the
consignment node user or by the master control node. If the
participant selects the auction preview, the auction process 108
passes the participant session to the market session 110 with data
that indicates an auction preview desired by the user.
[0048] If the participant selects the market 110 choice the
participant is given a menu of markets that the participants may
browse, discussed further below. If the participant selects the
agent handler 112 the participant may be provided with an
electronic form to create a search for a good. The participant may
then execute this Agent's search request to search the network of
consignment nodes databases to look for the desired goods. The
Agent is discussed more fully below. The Agent Handler 112 also
receives incoming calls from other agents to process the external
agents search request on the consignment node. The participant
interface and consignment node participant functions are discussed
in detail below. The discussion now turns to the operation of the
consignment node by the user.
[0049] FIG. 3 shows a logical flow diagram of the steps the
consignment node may use to create a database record of a good for
sale or for auction.
[0050] The consignment node user may invoke the consignment node
program to enter the posting 200 mode to create a data record for
the good. The posting 200 mode initializes 204 the consignment node
to receive information on a new good. The initialization 204 step
displays a data record with data fields on the consignment node
terminal for the user to fill in information on the good. The
initialization step 204 also initializes the consignment node
peripheral devices such as the digital camera 12 and the printer
20. The consignment node user then "photographs" or digitizes the
image of the good from one or more perspectives as well known to
the digital camera arts. The consignment node receives the
digitized image(s) at receive image 206 step. The consignment node
program then prompts the consignment node user for information on
the good 208. The consignment node receives information 210 that
the consignment node user inputs to the data record displayed at
step 208. The consignment node program verifies 212 that the
necessary information, such as owners name, reserve price, market
or auction designation is in the data record. The verify step 212
will reject the record and return the consignment node user data
entry mode 210 if the record does not have the minimum information.
If the record is verified 212 as complete enough to commit to the
consignment node database, a data record is created 214 and linked
into the consignment node database. The consignment node program
then generates and prints a bar code 216 that indicated the data
record. The bar code system is used by the consignment node to
maintain an accurate inventory and is a hook for local sales
(discussed below). The posting routine may then exit 218 and return
from the posting program. By repeating the posting routine of FIG.
3 the consignment node user may build a database of goods for the
consignment node market, auction and/or agent searches.
[0051] FIG. 4 shows the logical block flow diagram of the processes
the consignment node may take to execute an auction. It is
understood that the consignment node user may manually invoke the
auction process, or may schedule the consignment node to execute
the auction process. The auction process begins by initializing 250
the data structures, records, queues and the like to conduct the
auction process. The connection between the auction process and
auction participants is discussed below. The auction process gets
the first item to be auctioned 252 from the database of goods to be
auctioned 254. The consignment node then calculates the opening bid
256 by a predetermined formula such as 50% of the reserve or
general solicitation of an opening bid is posted to the auction
participants 258. The consignment node auction mode then scans the
participants for a higher bids 262. If a higher bid is found the
new bid is posted 264. It is understood that the steps of checking
for bids 260 determines if the bid is higher 262 and posting the
new higher bid 264 is repeated until no higher bids are received.
After the typical auction closing of going once . . . twice . . .
three times the auction is closed 266. The consignment node auction
program then compares the highest bid received with the good's
reserve price 268 to determine whether to transact the sale. If the
highest bid is greater than the reserve price the consignment node
auction process posts sold! for xxx amount to the auction
participants and calls the transfer ownership subroutine 270
discussed further below, and transfers the ownership of the good.
If the highest bid is less than the reserve price the consignment
node auction process announces no sale! 272 to the auction
participants. The auction process then proceeds 274 to get the next
good to be auctioned 278. The consignment node auction process is
then repeated until all the goods to be auctioned have been run
through 278. The consignment node auction may then close and
terminate the participant sessions 280. It is understood that the
transfer ownership 270 sub-routine may require time to clear the
transaction and, therefore, may be best implement as a spawned
child process to the auction process. This will keep the
consignment node auction executing at an exciting and fast pace for
the participants. The consignment node auction process itself may
execute in several instances to provide simultaneous auctions on a
consignment node. Thus a consignment node may conduct several
simultaneous auctions on several virtual runways. It is understood
that in the auction mode the consignment node and the participant
interface software may communicate using a protocol that allows the
consignment node auction driver to "point to" locations stored in
the participant interface software, to cause the participant
interface software to generate the sound of a auctioneers voice on
the sound blaster, or equivalent board. Thus, the present invention
uses pre-stored sound samples of different auction prices and
auctioneer "string" along aural calls inside the participant
interface software, and allows the generation of said pre-stored
sound bites to be invoked by the consignment node driver through
the said special protocol. This method greatly reduces the
bandwidth necessary for a consignment node to support the
generation of exciting auctioneers calls at a plurality of
participant terminals. It is understood that the generation of an
audio bit stream from the consignment node to the participant
terminals is also with the scope of the present invention.
[0052] FIG. 5 shows the logical flow for the post bid subroutine
300. The post bid sub-routine may be invoked from several
consignment node processes, those specifically described thus far
are the post opening bid 258 and posting bid 264 logical processes.
The post bid 300 sub-routine is used to communicate between a
consignment node and multiple participants. The post bid 300
sub-routine gets participant session identifications 302 from a
data record or data structure that contains a list of session
identifications of participants who have logged onto the auction
sessions. The next step sends the bid passed to the post bid 300
subroutine to each participant session identified in the data
structure 306. Bids are posted to each participant through an
appropriate driver 308. The driver may be identified for each
particular user session. For example, a PC user logged into the
consignment node via an X.25 virtual channel may require a host PAD
driver in the consignment node to communicate asynchronously to the
PC terminal interface application. A network user may require a
TCP/IP driver to connect between the consignment node and the
participant networked terminal. After communicating the bid to
participants through the appropriate device driver 308, the post
bid sub-routine may exit and return 310 to the calling routine.
[0053] FIG. 6 shows the consignment node subroutine to check
participant sessions for bids during the auction mode. Check for
bids 350 maybe a subroutine called by the auction program to scan
for bids. It is understood that when a participant logs into the
consignment node and selects the auction mode, (see FIG. 2), the
participant's session identification is passed to a data structure.
The data structure maybe used by the check for bids 350 sub-routine
to correctly identify participants at a particular virtual auction.
As noted above, the consignment node may support multiple
simultaneous auctions, therefore, may require multiple instances of
the aforesaid data structure. The check for bids sub-routine 350
opens or connects to the appropriate data structure storing or
holding participant session identifications who are participating
in the check for bids calling auction program instance at the get
session identification step 352. The buffers associated with each
session is scanned for an input 354. If a participant has lo input
an "exit" command or symbol 356 the routine removes that
participant's session identification from the auction identifying
data structure and allows the participant to exit 362 the auction.
The participant's session identification may be returned to a data
structure that allows the participant to return to the consignment
nodes main menu, see FIG. 2, or terminate the participant session.
The subroutine then compares the bids and takes the highest bid
358. If bids are tied for the highest bid the sub-routine may use
the first received-bid and reject the others 358. The sub-routine
then notifies the participant session who had the highest bid 360.
It is understood that the take the highest bid step 358 and notify
bidder step 360 are aware of the current bid price for a good and
will not allow a lower bid to be accepted. It is understood that
the participant session buffers are flushed after they are scanned
to remove old or latent bids. The check for bids sub-routine then
returns to its calling routine.
[0054] FIG. 7 shows the transfer ownership routine 400 that may be
used to transfer the ownership of goods and collectibles in the
consignment node. The transfer ownership sub-routine may be called
from several consignment node modes and processes to effect the
transfer of legal ownership. The first step in the transfer
ownership sub-routine 400 may be to verify a participant purchaser
information 402. It is understood that the consignment node may use
a variety of well known authenticating procedures to verify a
participant, such verification techniques include personal
identification numbers (PINS), passwords, call back, and a plethora
of encryption techniques and personal information identification
means to provide a reliable verification technique. It is
understood that a consignment node user may have established a
credit or deposit account for the participant from past sales or
the transfer of funds and the verify step 402 may connect the
participant to the account. The clear charge 404 step is used to
clear the participant consignment node transaction. It is
understood that this may be via an external credit card clearing
network, a connection to a credit account, or though one of the
many proposed electronic fund transfer schemes such as debit cards,
e-money, and clearinghouses. After the transaction clears the
charge 404, the consignment node credits the consignment node users
commission account 406 to extract the consignment node transaction
fee. The consignment node then transfers legal ownership 408 of the
good by changing the ownership entry in the data record in the
consignment node of the good. The consignment node may then print a
record of the transaction 410. It is understood that step 410 may
also be used to keep a log on the consignment node storage or tape
drive. The consignment node then removes the good from sale or
auction status 412. It is understood that the data record
representing the good is "locked" during the transfer ownership
sub-routine to prevent collisions of actions and transfers of the
good. If the participant has elected to ship goods then the
consignment node will print a shipping label 404 for the
consignment node user to attach to the good for shipment. The
transfer ownership routine may then exit 416. If the participant
has elected to re-post the good or collectable the participant may
specify a new reserve or offer price for the good or collectable.
It is understood that the purchasing participant may elect to leave
the good or collectable at the consignment node and post a new
offer or reserve price and may identify that the good is on the
market, e.g. may be bought and sold at any time, or that the good
is awaiting an auction date. Moreover, the participant may elect to
have the good viewable on the market or "invisible" to the market
while awaiting an auction date 422. It is understood that the
participant may elect to leave the good at the purchased
consignment-node and electronically transfer the offering of a good
to another consignment node. It is understood that consignment node
users may run a "trusted" network between consignment nodes to
provide the trust between merchants, that the goods exists and that
the network between the consignment nodes to provide for electronic
presentment of a good is a secure network connection. This allows
collectable goods to be concentrated for a single electronic
auction or virtual collectable market on a market maker consignment
node without incurring the costs of shipping the goods to a central
location to bring the good to the market maker consignment node. It
is understood that the trusted posting of goods on a market maker
node is a value added feature a small town consignment node user
can provide to his immediate collector community. It is understood
that the master central node may also serve as a legal consignment
node franchising authority to provide enforcement of integrity,
security and quality control for the consignment node network.
[0055] FIG. 8 shows the consignment node routine that may be used
to establish a virtual market. The market 450 may be selected from
the consignment node main menu, see FIG. 2, to allow a participant
to browse the consignment node goods database. The market 450 will
display to the participant market categories 452, categories may be
defined by the consignment node user to reflect the specialization
of his consignment node and the specialized markets or
miscellaneous markets for his goods. The consignment node then gets
the participants response 454 to the market choices.
The-consignment node may then display market sub-categories 456.
Again, the consignment node user may specify market sub-categories
to reflect the specialization of the consignment node. The
consignment node may then display items 458 and get the participant
or market user response 460 to the displayed choices. It is
understood that the participant may browse or scroll through the
goods on the market 462, 458, 460 until the participant responds
with a desire to exit the market 463. If the response is a desire
to transfer to the market root directory 464 then the consignment
node will return the participant to the market subcategories 456.
If the participant responded with a desire to terminate the session
466 the consignment node will exit the market and terminate the
participant's session. It is understood that during the browse loop
458, 460, 462 a participant may elect to buy or make an offer on a
good and may invoke the transfer ownership routine, see FIG. 7, to
effect the transfer of a good's ownership. It is also understood
that a participant may make an offer on a good below the asking (or
offered) price. Such a proposed offer may be stored by the
consignment node and used to notify the good owner. The good owner
may then accept the counter offer or reject. It is understood that
a participant counter-offer may be made subject to an acceptance
before date. It is also understood that a participant may establish
a "buy at" or "sell at" price/quantity for any good in the
market.
[0056] FIG. 9 shows a logical flow diagram of the process that may
be use to transact the transfer of ownership of goods on a
consignment node at the store where a consignment node may be
located. The consignment node user invokes the store sale
sub-routine 500 from a consignment node user terminal, see FIG. 1.
The consignment node user may use the bar code scanner to scan the
bar code of the good for sale 502. It is understood that the
consignment node user may manually recall or search the consignment
node database for the data record of the good or may let the
consignment node software use the bar code to automatically
retrieve the record 504. The data record is then scanned to
retrieve price and sale information on the good 506. It is
important to note that a good, while on display at a consignment
node user's shop may have transferred ownership and changed price
via network participants. The consignment node then displays this
information 508 at the consignment node user terminal. The store
customer may then elect to purchase the good. The consignment node
may process a store customer purchase request by calling the
appropriate sub-routine to transfer ownership, see FIG. 7, of the
good.
[0057] FIG. 10 shows a logical process diagram for the central node
to collect and process data concerning transactions on a plurality
of consignment nodes and provide value added feed back to
consignment node users on market positions and trends. Data
processing 550 may be executed on a consignment node or the central
node to extract transaction data from a consignment node. It is
understood that the tape drive, or storage device may be used to
log network transactions on the posting, auctioning, buying and
selling of goods and collectibles on a consignment node. This
information may be collected by the central node over the
consignment node network. The central node may then plot sales,
sale date, price over time and the like to create graphs of market
performance 554. It is understood that the data correlation and
processing steps 554, 556 may be customized to provide a particular
consignment node user with useful market information. The central
node may also provide hard copies or electronically transfer the
information to the consignment node users. It is understood that
this may be a value added feature of a service that may be provided
by a franchiser. It is understood that the central node may log
into a consignment node, with well known remote processing and data
transfer techniques such as the rlogon and FTP UNIX utilities to
make changes to the aforesaid virtual advertising space on a
consignment node.
[0058] FIG. 11 shows the agent handler the consignment node may use
to establish agent-to-agent and consignment node-to-consignment
node connections to process participant agent requests. The agent
handler 600 may be entered by a predetermined series of codes and
verification procedures to verify a request for an agent connection
to the consignment node is from a bona fide agent and a bona fide
consignment node. Once this is verified the agent handler may
establish a session for the requesting agent 602. The requesting
agent may then transfer its agents request to the consignment node
604 and the consignment node may then check its local database 606
to try to match the agents search request. The agent handler may
then respond to the agents request 608 and terminate the agent
session 610.
[0059] Many variations of the present invention are possible with
the present invention and are within the spirit and scope of the
present invention. Those skilled in the arts will be able to make
many variations on the present invention once this invention is
known to the arts.
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