Patent ID: 8655747

Claim:
A system for processing sales transactions, the system comprising: a first computing device in communication with a buyer-operated computing device; and a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the first computing device, wherein the computer-readable storage medium comprises one or more programming instructions for: receiving an order comprising a non-conditional commitment of a buyer to purchase an item within a predetermined period of time, receiving a preferred share value associated with the buyer, wherein the preferred share value represents a first portion of a purchase price associated with the item, receiving contact information associated with one or more third parties, receiving a fractional share value associated with each of the one or more third parties, in response to a sum of the fractional share values associated with each third party and the preferred share value equaling the purchase price associated with the item, using the received contact information to send a message to each third party, wherein each message comprises the fractional share value associated with the third party; upon expiration of the pre-determined period of time, processing the payments of the buyer's preferred share value, funding commitments received from the one or more third parties, and the balance owed by the buyer in the event the sum of the funding commitments received from the one or more third parties within the pre-determined time is less than the sum of all fractional share values associated with the one or more third parties; receiving, from the credit card payment system, an indication of a failed charge associated with one or more of the third parties; and determining a balance owed by the buyer by: determining a first value equal to a difference between the purchase price and a sum of the funding commitment values associated with the third parties, determining the funding commitment value associated with the third party having the failed charge, and summing the first value and the determined funding commitment value.