System and Method for Generating Market Pricing Information for Non-Fungible Items

Abstract

A system for generating market pricing information for a non-fungible target item includes one or more databases containing historical pricing information for at least one reference item, historical pricing information for at least the target item, and market pricing information for at least the reference item. A pricing engine determines a pricing differential between the target item and the reference item that reflects historical pricing information for the target and reference items. The pricing engine applies the pricing differential to the market pricing information for the reference item to generate market pricing information for the target item. The market pricing information for the reference item may include a substantially real-time current market price for the reference item, and the market pricing information for the target item may be generated in the form of a substantially real-time current market price quote for the target item for communication to a market participant.

Description

CLAIM OF PRIORITY [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 745,979 filed on 22 Dec. 2000 and entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING MARKET PRICING INFORMATION FOR NON-FUNGIBLE ITEMS. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 745,979 is commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application. The disclosure of related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 745,979 is hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure as if fully set forth herein.BACKGROUND [0002] 1. Technical Field of the Invention [0003] This invention relates generally to the field of electronic commerce, and more particularly to a system and method for generating market pricing information for nonfungible items. [0004] 2. Background of the Invention [0005] In general, commodity items are fungible in that market participants will freely exchange one such item for another such item, since any differences between the two items are immaterial. As just an example, share...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008] According to the present invention, problems and disadvantages associated with previ

Problems solved by technology

Even two houses with identical structures, appearances, and lot sizes generally cannot be entirely equivalent, since they must necessarily have different locations.

As an example, although sugar is inherently fungible as an item, two shipments of sugar delivered on different days and at different locations will generally not be treated identically in the marketplace.

A difficulty in marketplaces in which non-fungible items are traded is lack of liquidity with respect to these non-fungible items.

For example, in a marketplace for component parts used in manufacturing, there may be a large number of parts available

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