Patent ID: 8468091
Filing Date: 2013-06-18
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method for providing an advance payment for the trade-in of an item, the computer-implemented method comprising executing instructions in a computer system to perform the operations of: receiving a request from a user at a merchant system to trade-in an item; in response to receiving the request, determining by way of a computing system in the merchant system whether the item is eligible for an advance payment for the item; in response to determining that the item is eligible for an advance payment for the item, determining if the user is a top reliability tier customer of a merchant that operates the merchant system; in response to determining that the user is a top reliability tier customer of the merchant, providing an advance payment to the user for a total estimated trade-in value of the item prior to the shipment of the item by the user to the merchant; and in response to determining that the user is a not a top reliability tier customer of the merchant, providing an advance payment to the user for the total estimated trade-in value of the item in response to receiving an indication that the item has been shipped by the user to the merchant.