On Wed, 20 Dec 2000, William Fulmor wrote:
> In naming him for the 1996 Nobel Prize, the selection committee
> specifically cited his novel approach to auctioneering (now known
> as a Vickrey auction), which, through sealed bidding, awards the
> auctioned item to the highest bidder but at the sum bid by the
> second-highest bidder. According to Vickrey, in guaranteeing the lower
> price, both buyers and sellers benefit from bids that more accurately
> reflect the value of the item.
William, please explain in what way this describes the eBay auction
mechanism? eBay does not used a sealed bid. A sealed bid auction is
quite different than what eBay uses. And of course the high bid is what
is paid.
> I have no idea if eBay selected Vickrey's model, or duplicated it by
> accident, but AFAICT the only difference between theirs and his is that
> with eBay, the winner pays one bid increment above the runner up's bid,
> instead of exactly the lower bid.
What are you talking about? Wouldn't "one bid increment above the runner
up's bid" just mean the high bid??? And again, they did not use Vickrey's
method.
> Is this O/T, or what?
Always is, and obnoxious to boot. I motion for the creation of the
"!_at_%^$# eBay Gripe Mailing List" and that any message coming to CC that
has "eBay" (case insensitive) within the header or body will be
automatically routed to that list. Then people who actually care to wade
through all this eBay bullshit could subscribe to that list.
Can I get a second?
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
Received on Thu Dec 21 2000 - 00:21:29 GMT