Patent ID: 7406436

Claim:
A method for generating an analysis of post-sale market data for an item, comprising: detecting a trigger event corresponding to the item and a current user; assigning a unique identifier to the item in response to the detected trigger event; and receiving post-sale market data associated with the item that includes operational data related to the operation of the item by the current user; retrieving additional item operational data associated with one or more additional item instances, wherein the additional item operational data is collected from one or more independent users of additional instances of the same item type as the item; retrieving related item operational data associated with one or more related items classified in an item category that is associated with the item, wherein the related item operational data is collected from one or more independent users of related items; characterizing the current user's usage of the item based on the received current user item operational data; analyzing item data based in part on the characterization of the current user's usage of the item and the related item operational data collected from one or more independent related item users, as well as the additional item operational data collected from one or more independent additional item users; and generating an item data analysis, which is presented to the current user.