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Subject: 
Re: Proxy ratcheting: How do auction systems work?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.market.auction
Date: 
Wed, 21 Apr 1999 06:35:29 GMT
Viewed: 
797 times
  
Larry,
I must protest!  In designing the system, I wanted first of all to allow firm
bidding - which is an important signialing tool in an auction.  But the
'common' rules in proxy-only auctions would have bestowed every advantage upon
the proxy bid, leaving the firm bid all but impotent. I took it upon myself to
allow an advantage to the firm bid, via the 'disadvantage' to the proxy in case
3.   Further, the whole sniping issue is moot: the beauty of the non-timed
auction is that it promotes the dissemination of information, by ensuring that
late information - a last minute bid - is not allowed to determine the outcome.
Therein lies what I beleive to be the ugliness of timed auctions - they
discourage bidders from revealing information (how they value a given lot)
until as late as possible.  Don't get me wrong - timed auctions are a brilliant
method of creating excitement about otherwise mundane merchandise - it's just
that I abhor the idea that people believe it is the only way to run an auction
on the internet.

sorry if the typing's off, it's been a *really* long day..

Derick


As to Derick's scenario 3, lo these many appends back, I think his
system is OK but his rules are broken. Same as eBay, same reason.

Derick, change it now while you can, before it gets baked into
expectations of many many bidders. Remember, one of your selling points
is that you're different than eBay. Cherish that difference. Here is
another place for you to shine, brightly.

1 - a point to note (and this relates to libertopia, too...) life is not
fair. No system can guarantee fairness under any circumstances (consider
major asteroid strikes and their impact on auctions under way, for
example). But systems can, and should, do all they can to be fair.

--
Larry Pieniazek    http://my.voyager.net/lar
FDIC Know your Customer is wounded, thanks to you, but not dead...
See http://www.defendyourprivacy.com for details
For me: No voyager e-mail please. All snail-mail to Ada, please.
- Posting Binaries to RTL causes flamage... Don't do it, please.
- Stick to the facts when posting about others, please.
- This is a family newsgroup, thanks.



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Proxy ratcheting: How do auction systems work?
 
The bidding mechanism also has some new functionality. Assume the current lot is open with no bids and a $10 minimum. Next, assume it is an Airport Shuttle - built once. I make a firm bid of $150, fine. I then make a proxy bid of $400. The net (...) (25 years ago, 21-Apr-99, to lugnet.market.auction)
  Re: Proxy ratcheting: How do auction systems work?
 
(...) Hmm, how so? Can you give an example? (...) I think a byproduct of assigning labels to bid types is confusion about what's really going on. What's really going on in a "proxy bid" is this: You have a bid range -- an ordered pair (x,y), where x (...) (25 years ago, 21-Apr-99, to lugnet.market.auction)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Proxy ratcheting: How do auction systems work?
 
(...) No. Not required. The auction system doesn't have to be fair to be working "correctly". But the RULES can be broken. And I'm with you, the rules in eBay that allow a one penny overbid to take a solid wide range proxy bid away are indeed (...) (25 years ago, 21-Apr-99, to lugnet.market.auction)

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