Method and system to facilitate pre-ordering via an electronic commerce facility, and to automatically facilitate satisfying of a pre-order upon listing of an appropriate offer via the electronic commerce facility

A commerce system to facilitate a transaction, the system including:

• first means for recording a pre-order relating to an item at the transaction facility, the pre-order specifying a plurality of pre-order attributes including a minimum pre-order product condition and minimum seller rating;
• and
• second means for automatically performing a matching operation to detect a correspondence between the pre-order and an offer received at the system, the offer specifying a plurality of offer attributes including an offer product condition and a seller rating, the matching operation utilizing the plurality of pre-order attributes and the plurality of the offer attributes to detect the correspondence;
• the second means further, responsive to a detection of the correspondence by the matching operation, for automatically performing a transaction when the plurality of pre-order attributes are satisfied by the plurality of the offer attributes,
• wherein, if a batch of offers are detected matching the pre-order, the matching pre-orders are set to a reserve state, and wherein a second transaction is performed when one of the pre-orders is confirmed.

A machine-readable medium storing a sequence of instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to facilitate a transaction via a network-based transaction facility, the method including:

• recording a pre-order relating to an item at the transaction facility, the pre-order specifying a plurality of pre-order attributes including a minimum pre-order product condition and minimum seller rating;
• receiving an offer to sell the item at the transaction facility, the offer specifying a plurality of offer attributes including an offer product condition and a seller rating;
• automatically performing a matching operation to detect a correspondence between the pre-order and the offer, the matching operation utilizing at least one pre-order attribute of the plurality of pre-order attributes and at least one offer attribute of the offer attributes to detect the correspondence;
• responsive to a detection of the correspondence by the matching operation, automatically performing a transaction when the plurality of pre-order attributes are satisfied by the plurality of the offer attributes,
• wherein, if a batch of offers are detected matching the pre-order, the matching pre-orders are set to a reserve state, and wherein a second transaction is performed when one of the pre-orders is confirmed.