--- Adrian Vickers <avickers_at_solutionengineers.com>
wrote:
> The fact that the price changes during the auction,
> however, is the
> greatest indicator that eBay is not remotely like a
> "sealed bid" auction.
>
Not remotely? Is almost exactly like a sealed bid.
Those price changes during the auction mean absolutely
nothing, as the final price is determined in the last
5 seconds (at least in the majority of cases). Nobody
takes those prices changes during the auction
seriously, its like people talking before an auction,
discussing what the items are worth, but nobody really
tells you what they really think its worth. That comes
in the last 5 seconds.
Since the other bidders have no practical way to
counter bid those bids entered during the last 5
seconds, ebay's auction model can accurately be called
a "sealed bid" auction format, with the highest bidder
paying the second highest bid. If you change ebay's
format to extend the auction time after each bid, then
I agree its not a sealed auction anymore.
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Received on Sun Apr 27 2003 - 21:25:01 BST