Patent ID: 7904378

Claim:
An auction result prediction method, the method comprising: obtaining a participant specified characteristic for a first auction item; obtaining historical auction data; providing the participant specified characteristic and the historical auction data to a result prediction program executing on a computer; determining, by a processor in the computer that executes the result prediction program, a predicted auction result comprising: price ranges; and price range confidence measures, each specifying a confidence for a corresponding price range among the price ranges; providing, by the computer, the price ranges and the price range confidence measures to a result selector; receiving from the result selector a result prediction determined from the price ranges and the confidence measures; providing, by the processor, the predicted auction result to an insurance parameter determination program; executing, by the processor, the insurance parameter determination program: obtain an insured auction result; and determine an insurance cost for the insured auction result based at least in part on the predicted auction result.