Subject:
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Re: Fair Auction? (Was Re: Honest Capitalism)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 13 Sep 1999 21:58:06 GMT
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Reply-To:
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lpieniazek@novera.comANTISPAM
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Viewed:
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1412 times
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Richard Franks wrote:
>
> Do you think that it is unworkable because of a problem with the auction
> mechanics, or because too many people believe too strongly in Capitalism?
You ask the same question later on, so I'll answer it there
> > And that's as it should be.
>
> That's how it is, but I think the debate about whether it should be that way in
> the 'real world', has been probably overdone to a crisp.
>
> I'm more interested in why people think that Lego-Distribution has to be so
> tied in with real-world capitalism. Would a system like the one proposed
> benefit a broader range of Lego-Fans than current high-profit auctions? If the
> answer is possibly, or yes.. then would there be any harm implementing it?
I'd say, basically, any scheme, in order to be successful, needs to have
buyers AND sellers. Right now, for example, SC has lots of sellers but
not enough buyers. The window "buyer's auction" we spawned off a few
weeks ago has lots of buyers but not enough sellers.
Where I see the flaw with your scheme is that there is no motivation for
the seller. Why should a seller put up his goods for less than he can
get elsewhere? To motivate a seller you have to have a BENEFIT to the
seller. Nebulous "it's good for the community" benefits usually don't
work.
This is the same problem with ANY scheme to sell things for less than
market value, not enough sellers... consider the oil shocks of the
70s...
When the US government imposed price controls on oil, all of a sudden
there were more buyers than there was gasoline available. Remove price
controls and the gasoline appeared. Strangely enough, the market is now
delivering gasoline for LESS (in real dollars) than when the government
was trying to control it.
Conversely, when the sellers get together to try to increase prices,
there are always leakers who will sell below what the cartel charges,
unless you have some sort of government imposed barrier to entry.
Fortunately for us as buyers of oil, there is no world government to
force cartel compliance, and the oil sellers always cheat their own
cartel.
--
Larry Pieniazek larryp@novera.com http://my.voyager.net/lar
- - - Web Application Integration! http://www.novera.com
fund Lugnet(tm): http://www.ebates.com/ Member ref: lar, 1/2 $$ to
lugnet.
NOTE: I have left CTP, effective 18 June 99, and my CTP email
will not work after then. Please switch to my Novera ID.
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Fair Auction? (Was Re: Honest Capitalism)
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| (...) Do you think that it is unworkable because of a problem with the auction mechanics, or because too many people believe too strongly in Capitalism? (...) I agree. Equal rights implies that at some level we are equal, that we deserve the same (...) (25 years ago, 13-Sep-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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