THE DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTION OF AUCTION MARKETS
AS finds an interesting article suggesting auction-prices were a "fad".
That's a wrong interpretation, in my opinion. They are the victims of their own success. In other words, the market quickly became efficient. In many cases (if not all), auctions are incredibly efficient ways to price things ... Put another way, "bargains" just dried up.
BUYERS NOT CENTRAL?
Also, the press to bring on-board more and more 'online retailers' to drive volume has put a crimp on the auction-only people (to illustrate, you cannot search completed listings for auction-only items...).
I don't like that buyers seem to have lost ... their centrality.
BARGAINS? For sellers ...
There are still bargains. A very low-volume user, I sold a old pair of leather jeans to some guy who got a super bargain. There comes a time when you realize that you may not be the same waist-size you were in your 20s.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people who still "overpay" ... For a while, I watched people bid off their gourd for a certain video-card I wanted. I've seen people bidding crazy prices for used ATA hard-drives. There are some excellent beach chairs selling for double what you can get them for at COSTCO ...
This just means there is a strong secondary-market and that's probably a good thing.
It might just mean that eBay is now just as much for sellers as buyers ...
It could also mean that the key value of the direct-sale is linking individual buyers with individual sellers, not price. That stands to reason. Information plays such a key role in all consumer markets...
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
No Market for Auctions
