The "Name-Your-Own-Price" (NYOP) system is where a buyer specifies a price and a product and/or service, and asks sellers to match that combination. NYOP is a special type of reverse auction

Reverse auction

A reverse auction is a type of auction in which the roles of buyers and sellers are reversed. In an ordinary auction , buyers compete to obtain a good or service, and the price typically increases over time...

 originally pioneered on the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 by Priceline.com

Priceline.com

Priceline.com is a company and a commercial website that helps users obtain discount rates for travel-related purchases such as airline tickets and hotel stays. The company is not a direct supplier of these services; instead it facilitates the provision of travel services by its suppliers to its...

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Name-your-own-price sales are considered "opaque" by marketers because buyers "don't know the name of the supplier (airline, hotel or car rental company) or the schedule (with air tickets) until after" they make a nonrefundable purchase. Suppliers benefit because they can sell to the most price-conscious travelers without publicly disclosing those low rates.

By 2005, Priceline began to de-emphasize this system, and added published price options on their websites.

In Denmark there have recently (July 2006) been an addition in websites that incorporate and develop this business model. The site (www.prisminister.dk http://www.prisminister.dk) differs from the priceline strategy, by only collecting a deposit before the deal, rather than making the user commit 100% to the purchase. Furthermore the dealer is allowed to make a return offer, if the price the user requests is too low. After the bidding, if no dealer has accepted the users price, the user receives the lowest bid amongst the dealers.

Other Uses

The term can also refer to a method of online content distribution where consumers can download a product (usually a film or album) at a price they set, typically starting at one cent. Notable examples of this are Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...

' release of their album Ghosts and Radiohead

Radiohead

Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...

's album In Rainbows

In Rainbows

In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download self-released, that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007. The...

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