Patent ID: 7769637

Claim:
A method of operating an electronic barter system for facilitating consumer to consumer bartering transactions, comprising: a first consumer user listing item(s) on the electronic barter system; the electronic barter system determining and awarding to said first consumer user an amount of barter credit for said listed item(s); the electronic barter system identifying at least one item that has been listed on said electronic barter system by other consumer user(s) that may be desirous to said first user; the first consumer user selecting a desired item via the electronic barter system; the electronic barter system permitting at least a portion of said barter credit to be used by said first consumer user toward the acquisition of said desired item, the electronic barter system permitting the first consumer user to acquire an item from another consumer user where it is not required that the other consumer user acquire any item from the first consumer user; and the electronic barter system communicating a request to the consumer user who listed the desired item that the consumer user who listed the desired item surrender said desired item.