Patent ID: 7702545

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for facilitating exchanges of items, comprising: receiving information from users who are potential sellers of items such that, for each potential seller, the information includes an indication of an item that the potential seller desires to sell and a selection of one or more exchange locations at which the potential seller is willing to meet with prospective buyer users to provide the item, the one or more exchange locations selected by the potential seller each being a publicly accessible location that is not a retail business selling the item indicated by the potential seller; receiving information from users who are potential buyers of items such that, for each potential buyer, the information includes an indication of a type of item that the potential buyer desires to purchase and a selection of one or more exchange locations at which the potential buyer is willing to meet with prospective seller users to receive an item of the indicated type, the one or more exchange locations selected by the potential buyer each being a publicly accessible location that is not a retail business selling the type of item indicated by the potential buyer; under control of one or more configured computing systems, and after the receiving of the information from the users who are the potential sellers and the receiving of the information from the users who are the potential buyers, automatically analyzing the information received from the potential sellers and from the potential buyers to identify potential matches between the potential buyers and the potential sellers, the potential matches each including one of the potential sellers and one of the potential buyers and being identified at least in part by identifying an exchange location that was previously selected by both the one potential buyer and the one potential seller; and for each of the identified potential matches, notifying the one potential seller and the one potential buyer for the identified potential match of the identified exchange location that was selected by both the one potential buyer and the one potential seller, so as to facilitate a potential purchase at the identified exchange location by the one potential buyer of the item indicated by the one potential seller.