Patent ID: 8566143

Claim:
A method performed by a computer for providing pricing information for items with use dates, the method comprising: providing historical pricing information including offer prices at which a plurality of suppliers have offered to provide items with use dates; receiving by the computer a request from a user for pricing information for a requested item with a requested use date; for each of the plurality of suppliers of the requested item, obtaining by the computer from the supplier an offer to provide the requested item with the requested use date, each offer including a current offer price at which the supplier is offering to provide the requested item; determining by the computer a prediction for a future direction of offer prices for the requested item based on the obtained offers and provided historical pricing information; providing by the computer to the user an indication of a current offer price for the requested item and the prediction of the future direction of offer prices for the requested item; receiving from the user an indication to accept the offer of a supplier to purchase the item; and in response to receiving the indication to accept the offer, directing the item to be purchased from the supplier at the current offer prices of the supplier wherein the computer predicts the future direction of offer prices for the requested item provided by the plurality of suppliers and provides that prediction to the user so that the user can decide whether to accept the offer from a supplier at the current offer price or defer accepting an offer based on the prediction of the future direction of the offer prices.