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 Administrative / General / 937
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Subject: 
Re: FS: 8094 Technic Control Center
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.admin.general
Date: 
Mon, 25 Jan 1999 19:03:13 GMT
Viewed: 
4374 times
  
Larry Pieniazek <lar@voyager.net> writes:

> Todd Lehman wrote:
> > 
> > Eric McCarthy <bendyarm@aol.com> writes:
> > 
> > > [...]
> > > I would like to sell it for the best offer over $210, buyer paying
> > > shipping.
> > > I don't think of this as an auction since there will be no update
> > > and no opportunity to increase your offer based on anyone else's offer.
> > > 
> > > [ Todd: If this type of sale is considered an auction, please let me
> > > know and I'll post this sort of thing to the auctions group in the
> > > future. ]
> > > [...]
> > 
> > Good question!
> > $xyz o.b.o. doesn't fit the definition of auction (is there a B&W one?)...
> > Go ahead and post o.b.o. types of sales here as long as there aren't updates
> > and stuff...
> 
> Disagree, this is a sealed bid auction. You get one bid, you don't know
> who else is bidding. Nevertheless it's an auction. The key component of
> an auction is that multiple people are competing for a scarce commodity
> and it's not first come first served, price is the metric.
> 
> Auction variables include (but are not limited to, I may have missed
> some)
> - number of bids allowed (in this case it's one, but you can have a two
> round sealed bid with an intermediate announce of the winning so far
> bid, for example)
> - sealed or open (visible to everyone, that is, updates) bids (in this
> case they're sealed)
> - single or multiple lots
> - anonymous or known bidders (or a variant where only other bidders
> know, not the general public, or a variant often used in public
> contracts where you know who's bidding but not their bids(eBay before
> closure of the auciton), or a variant where all is revealed at the end
> (either top bids ala eBay after closure or total bid sequence))
> - conventional (increasing) bids or dutch (price reduction until sold)
> - pricing process (do you pay high bid or do you pay some variant such
> as the high bid wins at the second highest bid price)
> - fixed end time or going-going-gone (in this case it's fixed end time,
> but the time hasn't been stated... it has to be fixed by implication
> since it's not going-going-gone)

Excellent points!  OK, maybe we should see how close we can come to a B&W
definition of an auction (you've come pretty close there above already) so that
people can refer to this if there is any question.  Maybe something for the
FAQ.


> That was the pedantic view. The pragmatic one is that l.m.b-s-t is
> better suited to one time announcements and l.m.auction to ongoing
> updates so it fits here better than there. The REALLY pragmatic view is
> that you make the rules so what you say goes.
> 
> Followups set to lugnet.admin.general

I think the pragmatic side of the coin was the mindset in the outset (heh) but
OBO's are tricky things to categorize...  :)  When you see a bicycle for sale
in the newspaper as "$75 OBO" it usually means, "$75 if anyone'll gimme $75,
otherwise I'll go lower if necessary."  Eric's OBO is a different kind -- best
offer exceeding $xyz.  Eric's type of OBO is definitely more auction-like than
a classified newspaper ad for a bicycle.

--Todd



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: FS: 8094 Technic Control Center
 
(...) Arguably this is an auction too. The 75 is a suggestion as to where to price. In the bicycle case the seller thinks it is high. In Eric's case, he thinks it is low. In either case, a bid of 70, absent any other bids, may well be accepted (...) (28 years ago, 26-Jan-99, to lugnet.admin.general)

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