SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NEAR REAL-TIME, UNSOLICITED, UNBIASED DEMAND COLLECTION FOR DISTRIBUTING CONSUMER ITEMS

1 . A system for determining non-abstract consumer demand for an item comprising:

a server having a computer readable medium and a processor in communications with a plurality of remote computing devices;

a set of computer readable instructions stored on the computer readable medium that, when executed by the processor, provides for:

a user agent for receiving query requests from discrete remote computing devices representing a search for a desired good or service, having price criteria and placing the query request on a persistent search queue in response to an indication that the user wishes to make the query a persistent search wherein the query request represents an unsolicited and unbiased willingness to purchase an item at a particular price;

an aggregator for retrieving a plurality of query requests associated with a discrete item from the persistence search queue, defining a predetermined number of ranges equally spanning the difference between the highest and lowest price for the discrete item from each query request, determining which range the price of the query request falls and assigning that query request to that range, determining the quantity of items in each range to provide quantity price demand information; and,

a sales agent for transmitting the quantity price demand information to a supplier computer system, receiving an initial price and quantity of the discrete item being offered by the supplier from the supplier computer system, setting the current price to the initial price, (a) transmitting the discrete item information to all remote computer systems associated with a query request that represents the user's desire for the discrete item, (b) waiting an predetermined period of time, (c) reducing the quantity of items available by the number sold during the predetermined period of time, (d) reducing the current price and performing steps (a), (b), (c) and (d) until one of the following occurs: (i) the quantity of items available is reduced to zero, (ii) a sale termination period is reached or (iii) a maximum price reduction has been reached.

2 . The system of claim 1 wherein the sales agent (d) reduces the price to a price that is within the next lowest range of prices.

3 . The system of claim 1 wherein the aggregator retrieves a plurality of query requests associated with a discrete item from the persistence search queue that have been placed on the search queue within a predetermined period of time.

4 . The system of claim 1 wherein the sales agent transmits the discrete item information to the remote computer systems associated with a query request to having a desired price in a target range that is below the range where the current price falls.

5 . The system of claim 4 wherein the sales agent transmits the discrete item information to user's remote computer systems associated with a query request to the user's remote computer devices associated with query requests that include price criteria in a target range that is one range level below the range where the current price falls.

6 . The system of claim 4 wherein the sales agent transmits an opportunity to purchase the discrete item for a predetermine period of time.

7 . The system of claim 4 wherein the sale agent revokes the opportunity to purchase prior to (d) reducing the price.

8 . A system for determining actual or near real-time consumer demand for items including a server having a computer readable medium and a processor in communications with a plurality of remote computing devices and a set of computer readable instructions on the computer readable medium that, when executed by the processor, provide computer readable instructions comprising:

retrieving a plurality of query requests from the computer readable medium each associated with a persistent search for a discrete item;

creating a plurality of range brackets equally spaced between highest and lowest price for the discrete item taken from the plurality of query requests;

assigning each query request to a range bracket;

determining the quantity of items in each range bracket;

transmitting the quantity of items in each range bracket to a vendor computer system having items for sale;

receiving an initial price and available quantity of the items being offered by the vendor from the vendor computer system;

setting the current price to the initial price

(a) transmitting the item information to all remote computer systems associated with query requests that represent the user's desire for the item;

(b) waiting a predetermined period of time;

(c) reducing the quantity of items available by the number sold during the predetermined period of time;

(d) reducing the price; and,

performing steps (a), (b), (c) and (d) until one of the following occurs: (i) the quantity of items available is equal to zero, (ii) a sale termination period is reached or (iii) a maximum price reduction has been reached.

9 . The system of claim 8 wherein the set of computer readable instructions include instructions for reducing the price to a price that is within the next lowest range bracket.

10 . The system of claim 8 wherein the set of computer readable instructions include instructions for retrieving a plurality of query requests associated with a discrete item from the computer readable medium that were stored on the compute readable medium within a predetermined period of time.

11 . The system of claim 8 wherein the set of computer readable instructions include instructions for transmitting the discrete item information to remote computer systems associated with a query request that includes price criteria in a target range that is below the range where the price criteria falls.

12 . The system of claim 8 wherein the computer readable instructions include instructions for transmitting an opportunity to purchase the discrete item for a predetermine period of time.

13 . The system of claim 12 wherein the computer readable instructions include instructions for revoking the opportunity to purchase prior to (d) reducing the price.

14 . A system for determining actual near real-time consumer demand for goods or services having a computer readable medium with a set of computer readable instructions that, when executed by a processor included with the server, provide steps comprising:

receiving a plurality of query requests including a desired purchase price asynchronously from a plurality of remote user computer devices in communications with the server including the desired purchase price representing a user's willingness to purchase an item at a certain price;

storing the plurality of query requests on a query request queue on the computer readable medium;

retrieving a subset of query requests from a query request queue stored on the computer readable medium that have been received within a predetermined period of time;

determining the highest price and lowest price from the subset of query requests;

creating a plurality of unique range brackets between the highest and lowest price from the subset of query requests; and,

associating each query request in the subset of query requests with a range bracket.

15 . The system of claim 14 including:

receiving opportunity information from a vendor computer system representing the quantity and price tolerance of items available for sale;

(a) determining the range bracket associated with the highest price according to the opportunity information; and,

transmitting display opportunity information to the user's remote compute devices having query requests that are associated the range bracket from (a) so that the user associated with the range bracket of (a) is provided an opportunity to purchase the item at the user's desired price.

16 . The system of claim 15 wherein the opportunity information include information terminating the ability to purchase the item after a predetermined period of time has elapsed from transmitting display opportunity information to the remote computer devices.

17 . The system of claim 16 including:

determining the range bracket associated with the next highest price from (a) according to the opportunity information; and,

transmitting display opportunity information to remote computer devices having query requests that are associated the next highest range bracket from (a) so that the user associated with the next highest range bracket of (a) is provided an opportunity to purchase the item at the user's desired price.

18 . The system of claim 15 wherein the opportunity information includes information terminating the ability to purchase the item after a predetermined period of time as elapsed from transmitting display opportunity information to the remote compute devices.

19 . The system of claim 15 including:

displaying the quantity available according to the opportunity information;

receiving purchase information from the vendor computer system;

reducing the quantity available according to the opportunity information;

updating the opportunity information; and,

transmitting the updated display opportunity information to the user's remote computer device.

20 . The system of claim 14 including:

transmitting the highest price and lowest price from the subset of query requests, range brackets and query requests in the range brackets to the vendor computer system so that the vendor is provided with a near real-time demand for an item so that the vendor can create opportunity information including pricing and profit outcomes according to the range brackets and query requests in the range brackets.

21 . The system of claim 20 including:

retrieving challenge question information; and,

associating demographic information retrieved form the challenge question information with the query requests in the range brackets to be considered when creating the opportunity information.

22 . The system of claim 20 including:

storing temporally the highest price and lowest price from the subset of query requests, range brackets and query requests in the range brackets to create temporal information; and,

transmitting the temporal information to the vendor computer system to be considered when creating the opportunity information.

23 . The system of claim 22 including receiving opportunity information and transmitting the opportunity information to the remove computer devices.