Patent ID: 7891562

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for facilitating identification of items to make available to customers of an item transaction system, the method comprising: registering multiple users as customers of the item transaction system; for each of at least some of the customers, automatically identifying items for the customer to make available via the item transaction system, wherein the automatic identifying of the items for the customer includes: retrieving information indicating items previously purchased by the customer from one or more item marketplaces distinct from the item transaction system; and automatically adding at least some of those indicated items to an available item list for the customer, wherein the available item list of the customer indicates items that are available from the customer via the item transaction system, and wherein the automatic adding is performed by one or more configured computing systems of the item transaction system without obtaining prior approval of the customer; modifying the available item list of one of the at least some customers in response to instructions received from the one customer, the modifying including removing at least one of the items that was previously purchased by the one customer and automatically added to the available item list; and automatically facilitating item transactions between the item transaction system and customers, wherein the facilitating of the item transactions is performed by the one or more configured computing systems of the item transaction system and includes: receiving requests from multiple customers that are each for an indicated item that is on the available item list of at least one other customer; and responding to each of at least some of the requests by purchasing the requested item from one of the customers whose available item lists include the requested item and providing instructions to the one customer to send the purchased item to the customer who made the request.