Patent ID: 7403915

Claim:
An auction system for a merchandise item in a networked environment, said networked environment comprising at least one client connected to at least one server by a network, said auction system comprising: a preregistration module coupled to said at least one server for identifying and verifying a user of said auction system wherein said preregistration module checks the credit history of said user and generates a registration record of said user; an assurance module coupled to said preregistration module for conducting a presale inspection of said merchandise item and to generate a merchandise inspection report, the merchandise inspection report being conducted by an impartial third party, the merchandise inspection report including a warranty for the merchandise inspection report as an assurance to the buyer; a description module coupled to said assurance module for displaying said merchandise inspection report and a description report of said merchandise item; a bidding module coupled to said description module for processing a plurality of bids from a plurality of users, the plurality of users including a buyer for the merchandise item, the buyer is free from providing any condition associated with the merchandise item, wherein said bidding module analyzes each of said plurality of bids from each of said plurality of users to determine whether an incoming bid is higher or lower than a current high bid and to determine a current high bid; a system database coupled to said at least one server for storing each of said plurality of bids from each of said plurality of users, said merchandise inspection report, said description report and said registration record; a notification module coupled to said system database for assigning each of said plurality of bids with each of said plurality of users and to notify each of said plurality of users whether their bid is successful; wherein said merchandise inspection report is displayed prior to said processing a plurality of bids from a plurality of users; wherein said auction system removes said merchandise item from said auction system if a seller of said merchandise item does not agree with said merchandise inspection report generated by said assurance module.