Patent Grant
6993500
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method for an electronic business transaction of a trading card. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electronic business transaction system and a method thereof for selling, by an electronic business transaction utilizing a computer, a card pack in which a plurality of kinds of trading cards are substantially randomly selected by a predetermined number and packed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, a card pack in which a predetermined number of trading cards are packed is sold over the counter. A combination of cards within a card pack includes plural kinds of cards, and a card having rarity value is mixed at a certain probability within each card pack. Therefore, a purchaser (user) selects a card pack to be purchased, pays for the card pack at a register, opens the card pack as soon as the user goes out of the store before going home and looks forward to checking the kind of the cards enclosed therein. That is, the user has a strong emotion to check the contents as soon as possible at a time of purchasing the card pack and determine whether or not the card they don't have can be obtained.
On the other hand, with growing rate of Internet access around the world, utilization of an electronic business transaction or electronic commerce is increasing, in which various kinds of items are selectively purchased through the Internet, and the items are sent to a purchaser's home by mail, parcel delivery service or the like after electronic account settlement. It is probable that the trading card is sold utilizing the electronic business transaction.
However, in a case of purchasing the trading card by the electronic business transaction, the user cannot know the contents until the purchased card pack is delivered to his or her house. Therefore, many of the users tend to utilize a conventional counter selling and thus, in an aspect of sales of the trading card, there is a problem with successfully promoting the utilization of the electronic business transaction.
One approach to solving this problem, at a time of the electronic business transaction, is to permit the contents to be freely viewed beforehand on the web site similar to sales of other items. However, applying this method to the sales of the trading card causes the following disadvantage. That is, the more kinds of trading cards which the user already has (undesired cards for the user) increases the probability of the user canceling the purchase, increases connect time and causes electronic business transaction process troubles.
Furthermore, if the combination of the kinds of the enclosed trading cards is increased in number, there may occur situations where there is a difference between the confirmed or checked contents and delivered contents. If a card pack having the same contents with that confirmed by the user is not delivered, user's expectations are not met, thereby discrediting the electronic business transaction all the more.
Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a novel electronic business transaction system and method thereof suitable for selling a trading card.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic business transaction system of a trading card and a method thereof capable of promoting utilization by a user allowing the user to soon confirm or check contents of a card pack.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an electronic business transaction system of a trading card and a method thereof capable of preventing cancellation of purchase after confirming the contents of the card pack and smoothly performing an electric business transaction of the trading card.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic business transaction system of a trading card and a method thereof capable of surely delivering the card pack that the user has confirmed the contents in the electronic business transaction of the trading card.
An electronic business transaction system according to the illustrative embodiments is a system for selling, by an electronic business transaction utilizing a computer, a card pack in which a plurality of kinds of trading cards are randomly selected and enclosed by a predetermined number and comprises: a purchase determination screen display means (describing a parallelism between the embodiment, a program, a CPU21 and a display portion 25 for displaying a screen 20A in
The purchase determination screen display means displays the screen (20A) for selecting purchase of the card pack so as to allow a user to make a decision to purchase the card pack. The personal information input means displays the screen (20B) for specifying personal information of the user so as to allow the user to input the personal information. The payment method specifying means displays the screen (20C) for specifying a method for paying a price by the user specified by the personal information input means so as to allow the user to specify the payment method. The contents confirmation selecting means displays the screen (20D) for confirming the contents of the card pack so as to allow the user to select the confirmation of the contents after the personal information is input by the personal information input means and the payment method of the cost or price is specified by the payment method specifying screen display means. The contents display means displays on the same display screen (20D) the contents of at least a part of kind of the trading cards (or illustrations of the contents) enclosed in the card pack purchased by the user when confirmation of the contents of the card pack is selected.
An electronic business transaction method according to the illustrative embodiments is a method for selling, by an electronic business transaction utilizing a computer, a card pack in which a plurality of kinds of trading cards are randomly selected and enclosed by a predetermined number, and includes the following steps of: a first step for displaying a purchase determination screen; a second step for displaying personal information; a third step for specifying a payment method; a fourth step for selecting confirmation of contents; and a fifth step for displaying the contents. Herein, the card pack is sold with a seal so that the contents of the trading cards cannot be viewed from outside, and are multiple in kinds depending on a combination of the kind of the enclosed trading cards.
In the first step, a screen (20A) for selecting purchase of the card pack is displayed so as to allow the user to make a decision to buy the card pack. In the second step, a screen (20B) for specifying the personal information of the user is displayed so as to allow the user to input the personal information. In the third step, a screen (20C) for specifying a payment method by the user who is specified by the personal information input means is displayed so as to allow the user to specify the payment method. In the fourth step, a screen (20D) for confirming the contents of the card pack is displayed so as to allow the user to select to confirm the contents after the personal information is input by the personal information input means and the payment method is specified by the payment method specifying screen display means. In the fifth step, the contents of at least a part of kind of the trading cards enclosed in the card pack purchased by the user is displayed on the same screen (20D) when the confirmation of the contents of the card pack is selected.
Thus, according to the illustrative embodiments, since by displaying the screens to make a determination to purchase the trading cards, to make the personal information be input, to make the payment method be specified, to make the contents of the card pack be selected, and displaying the contents (kind) or figures of the selected cards, the kind or the figure of the card is known to the user at a time the trading card is determined to be purchased by the electronic business transaction before arrival of the item, the user can soon confirm the contents of the card pack (the kind or figure of the card), a desire to soon know the contents by the user can be realized, and therefore, sales of the trading card utilizing the electronic business transaction can be promoted by the user. Furthermore, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent cancellation of purchase after confirming the contents of the card pack, and therefore, it is possible to smoothly perform the electronic business transaction of the trading card.
In another aspect of the illustrative embodiments, an electronic business transaction system for selling, on a web page opened on a server, a card pack in which a plurality of kinds of trading cards are randomly selected and enclosed in a pack by a predetermined number, and comprises: a server (10) including a host computer (CPU 11), a user terminal (a terminal device 20) including a terminal computer (CPU 21) selectively connected to the server, and a connecting line (Internet 30) connecting the server and at least one user terminal. The card pack is sold with a seal so that the contents of the trading cards cannot be viewed from outside, and are multiple in kinds depending on a combination of the kind of the enclosed trading cards.
In the system, the host computer transmits/receives data required for purchase of the card pack by the user between the user terminal when the user terminal is connected. Furthermore, the user terminal displays the purchase selecting screen (20A) for allowing the user to select purchase of the card pack when connected to the host computer, and transmits purchase determination data to the server when determination to purchase the card pack is made. In addition, the user terminal displays the screen (20B) for specifying personal information so as to allow the user to specify the personal information, and transmits individual specifying information (personal information) to the server when the individual specifying information is input. Then, the user terminal displays the screen (20C) to allow the user to specify the payment method of the cost or price of the card pack, and transmits the payment method data to the server when the payment method is specified. The user terminal displays the screen (20D) for confirming the contents of the card pack so as to select confirmation of the contents after inputting the individual specifying information and specifying the payment method of the cost. Furthermore, the user terminal displays at least the contents of a part of kind of the trading cards enclosed in the purchased card pack when the confirmation of the contents of the cad pack is selected. Then, the host computer processes data required for an electronic business transaction transmitted from the terminal computer so as to perform electronic account settlement.
In addition, according to a preferred embodiment, since information of a card pack that the user determines to purchases is stored in an order data storage provided with relation to the server, and the card pack information can be known to the card factory by accessing the storage, and therefore, the card pack enclosed with the cards that the user has confirmed the contents can be surely delivered to the user.
The above described objects and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
In a case the user purchases a card pack including trading cards by an electronic business transaction, the user specifies a home page address of the server 10 by operating the user terminal 20 to accesse the server 10. The server 10 transmits to the user terminal 20 menu screen data for displaying a menu of sales of items (e.g., see
Then, after completion of ordering processes such as selection of the items, an input of the personal information, an input of the payment method and etc. by the electronic business transaction, the server 10, when the purchased item is a card pack enclosing trading cards, transmits to the user terminal 20 contents confirming screen data (see
Thus, the user can know the contents of the purchased card pack (kinds and illustrations of the trading cards included in the card pack) at a time of purchasing by the electronic business transaction before arrival of the item, and if a rare card which one does not have is included, the user will looking forward to receiving it. It is note that after knowing the contents, since the settlement of the electronic business transaction has completed, it is impossible to cancel the purchase.
On the other hand, the server 10 transmits to a variety of automation devices of the card factory 40 (e.g., a shipping processing device and/or a card automatic combining and packaging device and etc. shown in
Referring to
The storage 13 is for storing a main program for the electronic business transaction of the trading card and etc., and specifically stores data of the menu screens of sales of items shown in
The storage 14 is for storing illustrations of the trading cards and a variety of information related to the cards, and stores a table shown in
The storage 15 is for storing order data by the electronic business transaction, and stores customer information, items data selected to be purchased, kind data of a predetermined number of cards for specifying the contents of the card pack, kind data of the card pack or the like on an order-by-order basis, as shown in
Herein, a relation between the kind of the card pack and the trading cards enclosed in the card pack will be described. First, the trading cards enclosed in the card pack will be described.
As a sales method of the trading card, it is preferred to put on sale a combination of a multiplicity of cards (e.g., 30 to 40 cards) (called “Starter Kit”) so that such rare or pretty characters as to be collected by a collector can be included at a certain probability, and there would be cases of set sale on a reduced-number-of-cards basis (e.g., 10 cards) (called “Expansion Pack”). Then, rare kinds of trading cards having rarity value are preferably included in the trading cards 50 enclosed in the expansion pack at a certain probability. So as to notify a degree of rarity value (hereinafter, may be referred to as “rareness”), a rareness mark (e.g., star mark) is given to any area of the trading card 50. The rareness sets in a plurality of levels (e.g., 3 to 5 levels), and the more the number of the star marks, the higher the rareness of the card.
Furthermore, the ability data recording area 53 is an area for indicating in letters, symbols, numerals or their combinations ability data (may be referred to as attribute data) of a character being depicted in the illustration indicating area 52. For example, data including a character name, a character number, letters or symbols which represent weapons or magic to be used by the character, physical strength, power, hit point, offensive power, defensive power, and etc. together with the numerals representative of their amounts, and other kinds of data are visually (visually recognizably) printed. The attribute data recording area 54 is an area for indicating ability data or individuality representing data of the character depicted in the illustration indicating area 52.
More specifically, where the trading card is concerned in contents with an imaginary monster capturing and raising game in an electronic game or a video game, the character to be depicted in the illustration indicating area 52 may be a monster, wherein the individuality representing data or ability data to be recorded in the attribute data recording area 54 may be trick or performance data on a monster-by-monster basis, evolution-related data, explanatory texts of words, texts and etc. to explain the feature of the monster (letter or text data) and so on.
Furthermore, where the trading card is a card concerned in sports such as baseball, soccer or the like, the character (illustration) may be an athlete picture and the attribute data may be pictured-athlete's team name, the player's number, age and record data (in baseball, for a batter a batting ave., a home-run count, r.b.i, stolen bases, running power and etc., and for a pitcher an earned run ave., strike-outs, a self-approach point and etc., and for soccer, physical ability, a goal point, an assist count and etc.).
Where the trading card is a game card concerned in a role-playing game or an action game of the video game, the character may be a game-appearing person, an animal, or an imaginary animal or plant while the individuality representing data is appearing-person's life, power, ability, available items (weapons, guard, magic) and so on.
It is noted that in a case the card is aimed not for enjoying a card game utilizing a multiplicity of cards (not the game card), but for only collecting, it is enough to provide the character depicted on the illustration indicating area 52, and the attribute data recording area 54 may be omitted.
Then, a relation between the kind of the card pack and the trading card will be described. The relation between the kind of the card pack and the trading card is determinable utilizing two combination methods.
A first combination method is that in a case the card pack is the expansion pack which including 10 sheets of cards per one pack, each card pack is fixedly determined in a mnner that the combination of the kind of cards becomes a predetermined number (e.g. the combinations of cards are 100 kinds determined in advance) every pack. According to this first combination method, since the kinds of the combinations are not so large, and that the kinds of the combinations can be hold to some extent, there is a need for a user to purchase at least 100 sets of the card packs in order to collect all kinds of cards, and therefore, there is an advantage that a buying inclination of the user is driven.
Thus, plurality kinds of trading cards or game cards are randomly selected by a predetermined number so as to be enclosed in the card pack. The card pack is sold with a seal so that the contents of the trading card or the game card cannot be viewed from outside, and is provided in multiple kinds depending on a combination of the kind of the enclosed cards. It is noted that a design of an exterior and an informative label of the card pack is selected so that the kind of the card enclosed cannot be discriminated from outside by the user.
Referring to
In the case of the first combination method described above, the order data storage 15 is made accessable from the automation device including a computer of the card factory 40. The card factory 40 includes the card pack selecting and shipping device 41, for example. The card pack selecting and shipping device 41 is for automatically selecting any one of the combinations of the kinds of the cards determined in advance per a card pack. The card pack selecting and shipping device 41 has a function of printing a name and an address of a customer or user on an envelope on the basis of various data every customer stored in the order data storage 15 and enclosing the selected card pack in the envelope.
A second combination method is a method for selecting the cards by an arbitrary combination. The combination method is set with a probability of generation in advance for each kind of card, and in this method, the cards are ranked depending on rarity (rareness), and the kind of the card is set such that some cards different in level of the rarity (for example, in a case of classification into 3 levels of the rareness, high, middle, low) are combined at a fixed ratio in one card pack. Random number data according to the number of cards to be enclosed are generated, and selection is made in a manner that a card setting number for each rareness is determined on the basis of the random number data. Such the generation of the random number data for each rareness and determination of the kind of the card (card number) based on the random number data are processed by the computer (CPU and program) and etc. According to the second combination method, there are advantages that it is possible to select the combination of the trading cards enclosed in the one card pack in quite a various kinds, it is possible to drive the user's willingness to buy the trading cards, and therefore, sales promotion of the cards is performed. On the other hand, there are disadvantages that the kind becomes large, and manufacture and inventory control increase in complexity.
In the case of the second combination method, as shown in the card factory 40′, a shipping device 42 and an automatic card combining and packaging device 43 are provided. The automatic card combining and packaging device 43 selects, on the basis of the card number data among various kinds of data every customer stored in the order data storage 15, a card of a corresponding number one by one from a shelf stocked with the cards every card number, selects a predetermined number of cards (e.g., 10 cards) and then, encloses the cards in a packaging bag and seals the bag. The card pack in which the cards is thus enclosed is put into by a shipping device 42 an envelope having the customer's name and address together with a voucher such as an invoice, a purchase specification and etc., and then, the envelope is sealed so as to be subject to shipping processing.
A more detailed embodiment will be described below.
The storage area 14b is an area for storing character name data (Fushigibana, Hitokage, Zenigame . . . Mue and etc.) and image data of the illustration depicted in the illustration indicating area 52 (dot data G1, G2 . . . Gn) of each card every card number (001, 002 . . . n). The storage area 14b may be stored with a probability of appearance and the rareness every card number as necessary. Data of the probability of appearance and the rareness is utilized for displaying the probability of appearance and the rareness at a time the illustration and the name of the card that the contents of the card pack is viewed in a case of the first combination method, and utilized as data for realizing the combination of the cards according to the second combination method.
The storage area 14c is an area for storing a card determination program for determining the kind of the card pack or the cards enclosed in the expansion pack. For example, the storage area 14c is stored with data of the number of cards, the random number data and etc., every rareness within one set of the expansion pack. In a case the kind number of the expansion pack is determined according to the first combination method, after the user selects any one of the expansion packs No. 1 to No3, the card determination program is a program for selecting or determining any one of numbers of 0 to 99 based on the random number data.
Furthermore, in a case of determining the kind number of the expansion pack according to the second combination method, the card determination program generates the kind number by the number of the cards (e.g., 10 cards) enclosed in the card pack on the basis of the random number data so that the number of cards every rank of the rareness falls within a set number, and any number within the range of the maximum number of the kind of card becomes the probability of appearance. In a case the number of the cards for each rareness rank is different from the set number, or in a case the probability of appearance is different from the set value, or in a case the same card appears, generation processing of the random number data is repeated so that a card having the rareness of another rank, or a card suitable for the probability of appearance can be enclosed within one card pack or the same kind of card within one card pack is not included more than two sheets of cards.
It is noted that in the case the determination method of the combination of the kind of cards is the second method, a storage area 15g for storing the card number is utilized in place of the storage area 15f of the kind data of the above-described expansion pack. The storage area 15g includes an area for storing the card number (data for specifying the kind of the enclosed cards) corresponding to the number enclosed in one set of the expansion pack. Furthermore, areas for storing a mail address of the user and storing the payment method may be provided as necessary, and in a case of payment by credit card, a credit number may be stored, and the settlement procedure such as payment on delivery and etc. and total amount may be stored.
It is noted that if all the cards are shown in this case, there is no enjoyment at a time of arrival of the item, and therefore, the number of sheets capable of being viewed may be limited such that only a part of the cards can be viewed.
It is note that since the flowcharts shown in
Next, referring to
In a step S1, when the user inputs an address of a site for the electronic business transaction of the trading card by operating the input portion (keyboard) 24, the CPU 21 connects the terminal device 20 to the server 10 via the communication controller 22 and the Internet 30. The MPU 11 of the server 10 transmits data of the card pack selecting screen 20A shown in
On the other hand, when the purchase is determined, it is determined so in a step S4, and the CPU 21 transmits to the server 10 information indicative of the purchased item and a determination of the purchase. Then, the process proceeds to a step S6. In the step S6, a total amount for payment (cost) is calculated on the basis of a quantity and a unit price of the item to be purchased. In a step S7, data for displaying the personal information input screen 20B shown in
In a following step S12, the MPU 11 transmits to the terminal device 20 data for displaying a payment method specifying screen (or settlement procedure specifying screen) 20C shown in
After the payment method is specified, (or after purchase of the card pack is determined), the MPU 11 determines the kind of the card pack (card pack kind number) on the basis of the random number data stored in the storage area 14c. Herein, a determination method of the card pack is as follows. Assuming that random numbers 0 to 99 are generated, and a numeral (1 to 3) of the number (No. 1 to No. 3) of the expansion pack selected by the user is regarded as a hundred's digit, by combining the numeral with a two-digit numeral (tens and ones) determined by the random number data, one kind of card pack is determined out of three hundreds kinds of combinations. Then, the MPU 11 reads out the card number (card kind specifying data) of ten sheets of cards enclosed in the card pack determined by the kind of the card pack from the storage area 14a, and reads out image data (any data from G1 to Gn) of each card corresponding to the card number from the storage area 14b so as to transmit the data to the terminal device 20. At the same time, the MPU 11 writes the kind number of the card pack to a card pack contents data storage area of the storage 15 in correspondence to the customer.
The CPU 21 displays on the display portion 25 a card selecting screen 20D shown in
Thus, there are advantages that the user can know the kind of the card enclosed in the card pack almost at the same time with the determination of the purchase by the electronic business transaction before the purchased trading card or card pack is delivered, and a desire to soon confirm the contents by the user can be realized.
It is noted that in a case the cards the user can view is limited in number, a quantity counter (or a quantity register) is provided, and the program is set such that a counted value of the quantity counter is advanced by one, and if the counted value of the quantity counter reaches the limitation number, viewing the contents of the card thereafter is limited. Therefore, there is an advantage that the user can confirm the kind (contents) of part of cards enclosed in the card pack purchased by the user at a time of determining the purchase while the user can look forward to waiting the kind of the card which has not viewed until delivery.
Furthermore, a program of a mini game (simple game to be played in short time) is provided and may be controlled so that the number of cards capable of being viewed is different depending on the result of the mini game. Thus, since the number of the cards the kind of which can be confirmed is changed depending on the result of the mini game, there are advantages that it is possible to enjoy the mini game looking forward to knowing large and small of the number of cards the kind of which can be confirmed, and therefore, a desire to purchase the card by the user utilizing the electronic business transaction can be more uplifted.
In the above described step S21, when it is determined the end button is depressed, the connection between the terminal device 20 and the server 10 is disconnected. Thereafter, in a step S22, the card pack selecting and shipping device 41 in the card factory 40 selects a kind of card pack corresponding to the card pack number purchased by each user on the basis of sales data of every user stored in the storage 15, prints the name and the address of the user on the envelope (or a seal printed with the address and the name is attached to the envelope or the package), encloses the selected card pack and a voucher in the envelope and etc., and then, seals it. Thus, the envelope enclosing the card pack is delivered to the user by mail or carrier such as a parcel delivery service and etc. receiving a shipping request.
It is noted that a dispatch process may be manually processed.
However, although cases in which a card pack changed in combination of the kind of the enclosed cards is provided in multiplicity kinds, and the kind of the card pack is determined in accordance with the random number data on the basis of the first combination method are described in the above-described embodiment, the combination of the card may be determined on the basis of the second combination method so as to increase the kind of the combination, and the card pack may be sold by the electronic business transaction.
In a case of the second combination method, 10 sheets of random data may be generated, and 10 sheets of kinds of card may be determined by one as described in parenthesis in above-described step S15. At this time, in a case that the probability of appearance is too high, the random number data is generated again irrespective of the generated random number data and is processed to become another card number such that the probability of appearance every card number or every character is approximate to the probability of appearance stored in the storage area 14b. Furthermore, the card number list is stored every rareness, and the card number may be selected at times equal to the number set in the card number list for each rareness such that the probability of appearance for each rareness in one pack becomes equal to the number stored in the storage area 14c for each rareness. The 10 sheets of card kind data (card number data) thus determined is written in the card number storage area of the storage 15 so as to be registered. Then, in the above described step S22, the automatic card combining and packaging device 43 in the card factory 40′ automatically selects cards to be enclosed in one card pack on the basis of the card number registered in the card number storage area of the storage 15 and encloses the cards in the package and seals the package. Thereafter, the shipping device 42 encloses the card pack in the envelope written with the address and then, performs a shipping process.
Thus, there are advantages that the combination of the kind of cards enclosed in the card pack can be multiple in kinds, the card pack having a made-to-order combination is sold by the electronic business transaction, sales of the card pack having a combination of cards which is not sold by a counter selling at a store can be realized, and sales of the trading card by the electronic business transaction can be more promoted.
Although the present invention has been described and illustrated in detail, it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation, the spirit and scope of the present invention being limited only by the terms of the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001-086617 | Mar 2001 | JP | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5533124 | Smith et al. | Jul 1996 | A |
| 5689561 | Pace | Nov 1997 | A |
| 6200216 | Peppel | Mar 2001 | B1 |
| 6612501 | Woll et al. | Sep 2003 | B1 |
| 6735324 | McKinley et al. | May 2004 | B1 |
| 20020042744 | Kohl | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| 20020043764 | Imhof | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 2001331667 | Nov 2001 | JP |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20020165794 A1 | Nov 2002 | US |
