(Original article publication date:  July 9, 2008 (Inventerprise))

Problem

In a traditional Internet auction (e.g., eBay) or other user-to-user transaction setting  (e.g., Amazon used books), a winning bidder or buyer may be 3000 miles away from the seller.  The seller dutifully ships the item all that way, even when another seller selling the same item is much closer to the buyer.  This commonplace scenario massively wastes fuel and harms the environment through unnecessary carbon emissions from shipping-related fuel usage.

Solution

Auctionry™ eliminates or significantly reduces this problem as follows:  a first user lists an item for sale on an Internet auction site or similar venue offering user-to-user sales transactions. A second user with the same item in essentially the same condition joins a “fulfillment queue”.

Thereafter, when the auction closes with a winning bidder, if that bidder’s shipping address is closer to the second user than the first user, the second user ships his item to the bidder instead of the first user sending his item. Income from the sale is divided between the first and second users.  In this way, the distance which an item must be shipped is reduced.

Results

Auctionry significantly reduces the distance which fungible items must be shipped in user-to-user Internet transactions.  Such reduction, multiplied on a wide-scale, will significantly reduce the amount of fuel used to carry items in user-to-user transactions and emissions associated therewith.

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Comment:  This system is part of the Alternative Address Shipping/Courier System.