Patent ID: 6868393

Claim:
A method for carrying out, over a communication network of interconnecting computers, electronic transactions between a plurality of merchants using at least one server computer and at least one buyer using a client computer, comprising: displaying, at the client computer, a separate representation for each item selected by the buyer from at least one merchant two different merchants, wherein each separate representation has an associated one of a plurality of selectable states, and wherein a certain one of the plurality of selectable states indicates that the buyer desires to purchase an item from a first merchant if a previous committed transaction which bought another previous item from a second merchant can be canceled; displaying an indication of the one associated selectable state with each displayed separate representation; and selecting one of the displayed separate representations to have a selectable associated state that indicates that the buyer desires to purchase a desired item from the first merchant if a given previously committed transaction which bought another previous item from the second merchant can be canceled: in response to selecting, i) making an identification of the second merchant and the previous item, ii) sending an electronic communication to the second merchant from the first merchant to cancel the previous committed transaction; and iii) if a confirmation is received indicating that the previous committed transaction was canceled by the second merchant, automatically changing the state of the first item to a state different from the conditional state, wherein further transaction processing to purchase the first item is dependent upon the changed state as a result of a successful cancellation transaction of the previous item carried out by the first merchant on behalf of the buyer as initiated by the buyer by selecting the conditional state in association with the first item.