Does No One Want that Gorgeous Machine?

[Clive George]

"Tosspot" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Clive George wrote:
>> "Tony Raven" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>>
>>> [email protected] (Alan Braggins) wrote in
>>> news:[email protected]:
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> It would be a good price if that was the price to beat, but the actual
>>>>> price to beat is whatever everyone interested has put into their
>>>>> sniping software.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I take it back - winning bid placed more than 40 seconds before the
>>>> end, and only one bid, so the winner has got it at a very good price.
>>>
>>>
>>> With only one bid and no reserve he seems to have paid much more than he
>>> needed to.
>>
>>
>> He paid the starting price, which in this case was effectively the
>> reserve.
>>
>> He couldn't have paid less in this auction.
>
> There was no reserve. But I'd have been leery of bidding under.

You can't bid less than the starting price on ebay...

cheers,
clive

 

[Alan Braggins]

In article <[email protected]>, Clive George wrote:
>"Tony Raven" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> [email protected] (Alan Braggins) wrote in
>>>>
>>>>It would be a good price if that was the price to beat, but the actual
>>>>price to beat is whatever everyone interested has put into their
>>>>sniping software.
>>>
>>> I take it back - winning bid placed more than 40 seconds before the
>>> end, and only one bid, so the winner has got it at a very good price.
>>
>> With only one bid and no reserve he seems to have paid much more than he
>> needed to.
>
>He paid the starting price, which in this case was effectively the reserve.
>He couldn't have paid less in this auction.

If he knew there were going to be no other bids, he could have not bid
and hoped the seller relisted it with a lower starting price. But he can't
know that no-one else is going to bid at the last second, so if he thinks
that's a good price for a Rohloff equipped Greenspeed and there's unlikely
to be another one along in a moment, the sensible thing is to bid.

 

[Phil Armstrong]

Alan Braggins <[email protected]> wrote:
> eBay auctions also differ from a standard auction in that the winner
> doesn't pay whatever they bid, but a slight increment over what the
> second highest bidder bid (or the starting price, if there is only
> one bid). So we can't tell what we would have had to bid to beat the
> winner.

It doesn't matter: Like I said, the result is independent of the type
of auction. Dutch, reverse dutch, sealed bids, sealed bids with second
highest price going to winner (ebay style), etc etc. They all achieve
(on average) the same final price.

The exception is when people are buying something which represents a
large cost to them, especially if it has a strong emotional component,
where sealed bids gets a higher price than other methods.

(The reference is an economics book I have upstairs; I'll see if I can
dig it out.)

Phil

--
http://www.kantaka.co.uk/ .oOo. public key: http://www.kantaka.co.uk/gpg.txt

 

[Alan Braggins]

In article <[email protected]>, Phil Armstrong wrote:
>Alan Braggins <[email protected]> wrote:
>> eBay auctions also differ from a standard auction in that the winner
>> doesn't pay whatever they bid, but a slight increment over what the
>> second highest bidder bid (or the starting price, if there is only
>> one bid). So we can't tell what we would have had to bid to beat the
>> winner.
>
>It doesn't matter: Like I said, the result is independent of the type
>of auction. Dutch, reverse dutch, sealed bids, sealed bids with second
>highest price going to winner (ebay style), etc etc. They all achieve
>(on average) the same final price.
>
>The exception is when people are buying something which represents a
>large cost to them, especially if it has a strong emotional component,
>where sealed bids gets a higher price than other methods.
>
>(The reference is an economics book I have upstairs; I'll see if I can
>dig it out.)

If you find it, check whether they examined the case of sealed bids
with a strong emotional component for items which are rare and strongly
non fungible but not necessarily a large cost. I suspect a similar
effect will occur, but it's only a suspicion.