Patent ID: 8117063

Claim:
A method for creating a probabilistic product, the method comprising: obtaining, using a computer, a set of product identifiers corresponding to a plurality of products offered by a seller, wherein each of the plurality of product identifiers uniquely corresponds to one of the plurality of products; selecting a subset of the product identifiers using a selecting module executing on the computer; generating, using the computer, a plurality of probability values, each probability value uniquely corresponding to one of the product identifiers contained in the subset, wherein a sum of the probability values equals one; determining, using the computer, a monetary value, defining a selling price, wherein by paying the selling price to the seller, a buyer will receive a product associated with one of the product identifiers randomly chosen from the subset, and wherein a probability of choosing a particular product identifier is equal to the probability value corresponding to the particular product identifier; defining the subset and corresponding probabilities of a single probabilistic product; communicating an offer for the probabilistic product to a plurality of buyers that identifies the probability values corresponding to the product identifiers contained in the subset to the buyers; and adjusting the selling price for a buyer in response to that buyer choosing probability values for the product identifiers contained in the subset.