Perhaps everyone places a proposed order over a few days' time, and then the orders get filled at random, so it becomes more the luck of the draw for the high-demand items rather than who has the skill to log in and place an order fastest.
Anything high-demand might work this way, along with Nemo's idea to use price to help moderate demand. Low-demand/high-inventory stuff could be handled separately if necessary.
Dunno, there's just got to me a better way. I wonder if there's a community of thinkers smart enough to come up with one??
