Patent ID: 7107232

Claim:
A computer system for facilitating a sale of a plurality of items between one or more sellers and one or more potential buyers, comprising: a memory storing data received from each seller identifying a plurality of items to be offered for sale; and a processor operatively connected to the memory, the processor programmed to: (a) establish an available purse designating a maximum amount of funds made available by each potential buyer; (b) communicate to each potential buyer the offer for sale of each item and a predetermined portion of the data as established by each seller pertaining to the items offered for sale; (c) receive purchase offers from each potential buyer, each purchase offer having an item and purchase price associated therewith, wherein each purchase price may not exceed the balance of the corresponding available purse, but wherein an aggregate of all pending purchase offers by each potential buyer may substantially exceed the amount of funds available to the corresponding potential buyer; (d) communicate the pending purchase offers to each corresponding seller; (e) receive an acceptance of a purchase offer from a seller; (f) immediately after step (e) calculate a new balance of each available purse by deducting from the available purse the purchase price associated with the offer; and (g) withdraw any of corresponding potential buyer's other pending purchase offers for which the associated purchase price exceeds the amount of the new balance.