Snipers, Shills, & Sharks [antikvár]

PREFACEThis book is about the way buyers and sellers behave in auctions, especially internet auctions hke eBay We'll discuss the empirical evidence showing how they do behave, the theory of how they should behave, and the continuing work towards understanding the very interesting differences. It is designed for two kinds of readers: the general reader, whom I picture as an active eBayer; and the student in an undergraduate course designed to cover the basic strategic ideas of auction theory and practice. No previous work in economics is required, and I've arranged it so the mathematics is optional. Read on.To the General ReaderI was first drawn to the study of auctions by my addiction to ancient coin collecting. In the 1980s and early 1990s ancient coins were available to the collector of small means largely through mail-bid sales, usually run by entrepreneurs who were collectors themselves, and who distributed simple, often mimeographed and unillustrated catalogs every few months or so. In their wisdom, the dealers ran the sales as what are now called Vickrey auctions, that is, sealed-bid, second-price auctions. When eBay arrived, it opened up an astonishing supply of low-priced and interesting items from around the globe, and attracted a corresponding clientele of collectors, some experienced and some new to the field. A second addictioneBay^joined my collecting habit, and, at the same time, I naturally became interested in auctions from a professional point of view as a computer scientist.The buyer and seller behavior I observed was fascinating, and often puzzUng. Some bidders bid early and often, some got in bidding wars, and some bid at the last second. Some sellers set opening bids of $0.01, some set enormous opening bids, some used inexplicable combinations of opening bids, secret reserves, and buy-it-now prices. The variety of behavior seemed endless. What forces were at play here, and how can the