[Hidden-tech] eBay Newbie Questions

[Edbride-PR]

I uderstand the distinction. But I have been to 'live' auctions where the
auctioneer would say, "We'll starte the bidding at...$xx," and off it goes.
Even if several bids have been received, the auctioneer can pull an item if
a satisfactory bid was not made. This happened three times at the last
auction I attended. You cannot get away with this on eBay, assuming
"starting the bidding at" is the same as setting a Reserve.

I did not mean to say that the auctioneer did the deciding, but clearly
there were two different levels: starting level, and minimum acceptable
level, undoubtedly determined by the seller in advance. In eBay, aren't
these the same (i.e., the starting level is the reserve is the minimum
acceptable bid? And if someone makes a bid on the Reserve amount, the item
must be sold?)?

So, the auction might be "seriously flawed" from the eBay model, but my
experience is what it is.

There was a fellow out here in Pittsfield who was looking into 'live'
auctions on the Web, a few years back. I wonder if you were talking to the
same guy...

Ed

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daniel Fried" <dan at creativeconstructs.com>
To: "'Edbride-PR'" <Ed at edbride-pr.com>; "'Hidden-Tech'"
<hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 2:33 PM
Subject: RE: [Hidden-tech] eBay Newbie Questions


Ed,

Most live auctioneers are paid go-betweens, just like eBay.  Just like eBay,
the seller sets a reserve price, and if the price isn't met, the auctioneer
will announce it after the bidding and the item will be unsold.

Ebay was purposefully set up to allow for a faithful reproduction of this
system, although they have added other options that are not as practical to
manage in a live situation.

Anyway, my point is that your categorization of a "live" auctioneer deciding
to refuse to sell an item as being different from the eBay reserve model is
seriously flawed.  In a live setting reserve prices are also set in advance
and it is generally assumed that all items at a live auction have a reserve
price.  The auctioneer will not (in most cases at least, there may be
exceptions I don't know about) do the deciding.

As for my knowledge of this, I did have some initial talks about doing web
development for a "live" auction house a few years ago, and although they
didn't really go anywhere, we did talk about the live vs. eBay models so I
could better understand their business.

-Dan