Facilitating electronic commerce through two-tiered electronic markets and ...

1. A computer-implemented two-tiered electronic auction system comprising:

a data repository storing information corresponding to an inventory of one or more available items;

a first-tier providing a first participant access to the inventory of one or more items in the data repository, the inventory being offered to the first participant under a first pricing scheme; and

a second-tier providing a second participant, different from the first participant, access to the inventory of one or more items in the data repository, the inventory being offered to the second participant under a second pricing scheme different from the first pricing scheme.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the first-tier comprises one or both of a business-to-consumer electronic auction and a consumer-to-consumer electronic auction and the second-tier comprises a business-to-business electronic auction.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the first pricing scheme comprises retail pricing and the second pricing scheme comprises wholesale pricing.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the second pricing scheme is transparent to the first participant.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the second pricing scheme is unavailable to the first participant.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the first pricing scheme is visible to the second participant.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the inventory of one or more items comprises goods or services or both goods and services.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising another inventory of items available only the second participant.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising another inventory of items available only the first participant.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the first participant comprises a retail buyer and the second participant comprises a dealer.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the dealer comprises a wholesaler.

12. The system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of first participants, each of which is offered the inventory of one or more items under the first pricing scheme.

13. The system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of second participants, each of which is offered the inventory of one or more items under the second pricing scheme.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the first-tier and the second-tier share the data repository.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the second participant can add, modify or delete items in the data repository and can specify the first pricing scheme, the second pricing scheme or both.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the data repository comprises data records, each data record corresponding to an item in the inventory and specifying a first price for the item and a second price for the item.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the first price comprises a business-to-consumer price and the second price comprises a business-to-business price.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein the second participant has privileges, unavailable to the first participant, that enable the second participant to access the second-tier.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the second participant comprises a trusted dealer.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein the first-tier and second-tier are implemented on a same computer system.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein the first-tier and second-tier are implemented on separate computer systems interconnected by a network.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein the two-tiered electronic auction system is implemented on a computer system that also hosts an electronic market system.

23. The system of claim 1 further comprising a process that determines whether a participant is granted access to the first-tier or the second-tier.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the process comprises a login process that grants the participant access to the second-tier if the participant has been pre-approved.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the login process determines that the participant is pre-approved to access the second-tier if the participant enters a predetermined login ID or password or both.

26. A computer-implemented method of facilitating commercial transactions by providing a two-tiered electronic auction, the method comprising:

maintaining a first-tier electronic auction at a computer system, the first electronic auction comprising items offered to consumer participants under a retail pricing scheme;

maintaining a second-tier electronic auction at the computer system, the second electronic auction comprising items offered to dealer participants under a wholesale pricing scheme; and

linking the first-tier and second-tier electronic auctions through a data repository having data records that represent items concurrently available in both of the first-tier and second-tier electronic auctions.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein linking the first-tier and second-tier electronic auctions comprises maintaining a predetermined fixed rate that determines a price differential between the first-tier and second-tier electronic auctions.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the predetermined price differential is established by one or more dealer participants in the second-tier electronic action.

29. The method of claim 26 wherein linking the first-tier and the second-tier electronic auctions comprises maintaining a price differential between the first-tier and the second-tier, the price differential being established on an item-by-item basis by one or more dealer participants in the second-tier electronic auction.

30. The method of claim 26 further comprising facilitating a financial transaction in the first-tier electronic auction between a consumer participant and a dealer participant, the transaction having finality of transaction.

31. The method of claim 26 further comprising facilitating a financial transaction in the second-tier electronic auction between a first dealer participant and another dealer participant, the transaction having finality of transaction.

32. The method of claim 26 further comprising facilitating a transaction in the first electronic auction between a consumer participant and a dealer participant, the transaction transferring a legally cognizable interest from the dealer participant to the consumer participant.

33. The method of claim 26 further comprising facilitating a transaction in the second electronic auction between a first dealer participant and another dealer participant, the transaction transferring a legally cognizable interest from the first dealer participant to the other dealer participant.

34. The method of claim 26 further comprising:

receiving payment information from at least one participant in the first or second electronic auction, the received payment information being associated with a transaction at the first or second electronic auction.

35. A method for facilitating electronic commerce using an electronic auction system having at least a wholesale tier and a retail tier, the method comprising:

presenting for auction an item description stored in a database operationally coupled to the electronic auction system, the presentation of the item including a current retail bid amount;

receiving a wholesale bid from at least one wholesale-tier participant; and

selectively displacing the current retail bid amount if the received wholesale bid increased by a predetermined amount is greater than the current retail bid.

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising presenting the received wholesale bid increased the predetermined amount as a new current retail bid amount.

37. The method of claim 35 wherein the predetermined amount comprises a percentage of the wholesale bid amount.

38. The method of claim 35 wherein the predetermined amount comprises a percentage of the current retail bid amount.

39. The method of claim 35 wherein the predetermined amount comprises a fixed dollar amount.

40. The method of claim 35 wherein the predetermined amount is determined by a participant who offered the item for auction.

41. The method of claim 35 wherein wholesale-tier participants are presented with the current retail bid amount and with a current wholesale bid amount.

42. The method of claim 35 wherein received wholesale bids are transparent to retail-tier participants.

43. The method of claim 35 further comprising authorizing a wholesale-tier participant to access to the electronic auction using a verification process executing on a computer system.

44. The method of claim 35 wherein a verification process selectively grants access to the wholesale tier based on login information provided by a participant.

45. A system for facilitating electronic commerce transactions among participants in an electronic auction using a data packet network, the system comprising:

a first data storage location for storing information relating to an item for auction, the stored information indicating at least one of a retail price term for a retail-tier participant and a wholesale price term for a wholesale-tier participant;

a second data storage location for storing a user identification identifying a participant as either a retail-tier participant or a wholesale-tier participant; and

a display process for selectively displaying, depending on the user identification stored in the second data storage location, at least one of the retail price term to retail-tier participants and the wholesale price term to wholesale-tier participants.

46. A two-tiered auction system comprising:

a retail tier in which a bid on an item from a retail auction participant is evaluated based on an amount of the bid received from the retail auction participant;

a wholesale tier in which a bid on the item from a wholesale auction participant is evaluated based on an amount of the bid received from the wholesale auction participant increased by a predetermined amount; and

a process for differentiating retail auction participants from wholesale auction participants.

47. A method of conducting two-tiered auctions comprising treating received bids differently depending on whether the participant from whom a bid is received is a retail participant or a wholesale participant.

48. The method of claim 47 in which a bid received from a retail participant is evaluated based on an amount of the received bid.

49. The method of claim 47 in which a bid received from a wholesale participant is evaluated as if the received bid was for a higher amount.

50. The method of claim 47 in which, if a wholesale participant wins an auction, an amount owed by the wholesale participant is less than an amount of the wholesale participant's winning bid.