Patent ID: 7624057

Claim:
A method for securely selling an item on an online auction computer system, comprising the steps of: offering an item for sale on the online auction website supported by the online auction computer system; receiving at the online auction computer system messages from potential buyers that are considered bids on the item offered for sale on the online auction website; accepting at the online auction computer system at least one of said bids to be the purchasing bid for the sale of the offered item; receiving a notification message at the online auction computer system that the payment corresponding to the bid amount for the item was received by an entity associated with a payment and inspection service; receiving a notification message at the online auction computer system that the purchased item was received by an inspection service site; after providing the purchased item to the buyer for a monitored inspection at the inspection service site in such a manner as to allow the buyer to inspect the item but not alter or swap the item during an inspection period, receiving a notification message that the buyer's payment is being transferred to the seller upon acceptance of the item by the buyer during the monitored inspection or the buyer's payment is being returned back to the seller upon rejection of the item by the buyer after the monitored inspection.