Short answer: Agreed with jdcarpe about moving auctions to eBay.
Long answer: I think there are a few facts that we can get straight.
1. The forum software is literally not built for auctions.a. As some have been saying, it really doesn't seem hard at all to cheat or scam, given shills/shill accounts, anonymous bidding, the ease of either the buyer or seller reneging, etc. I get scared sometimes because participating in an auction here seems about as safe as participating on an auction on craigslist.
b. I've been burned a couple of times by auctions already, due to unclear auction rules:
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http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=49710.msg1085686#msg1085686 (lost, not knowing when to place the bid, because it was unclear to me that there was only one extension)
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http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48164.msg1033555#msg1033555 (won, but not optimally - my strategy had to change because of the confusion of whether or not GT's bid against himself was legitimate)
eBay's rules are pretty clearly defined and have stood the test of time. eBay is designed specifically by top economists, software engineers, and computer scientists, for the proper allocation of items from sellers to buyers. Is it perfect? No, but using it just seems way more appropriate than using geekhack to me.
2. eBay's variation of the second-price auction format should produce fairer prices than in the variation of the first-price auction format commonly seen here on geekhack. If not, it at least allows for the easiest bidding strategy.In an ideal world, everyone would have a basic understanding of
auction theory and
mechanism design from some basic undergraduate math/economics courses, and see how they can apply practically, to things ranging from how a state allocates prisons to which of its cities, to which roommate pays how much for rent, to how auctions are run in hobbyist communities like we have here at geekhack. But that's not the case. Members here can hardly grasp how to play a first-price auction (the idea of "sniping" isn't the ONLY factor in how to strategize), and sellers often seem to be at way too much of an advantage.
In the theoretical second price auction,
your best strategy is bidding what you truly value the item. For those who need it spelled out, the mechanism is such that you remain happy keeping your money than you overbidding and overpaying, and underbidding just doesn't make any sense. This makes it far easier than having to calculate what your best bid is in the first-price auction.
I do understand that a huge number of variables comes in the actual community setting, where we're dealing with higher disposable incomes and scarcer luxuries. For one, people think they have "more info" when they see the current bid (in contrast to the oft-studied sealed-bid auction formats, which Shadovved graciously mentioned as I typed this post given the post warning I got) and spend more time trying to figure out and play the "game". Also, in practice, many people don't have a set value coming into auctions - they're constantly changing. So honestly, whether it's a first- or second-price public auction, prices still end up higher than they should around here (see SSKs).
But that still doesn't make the strategy for second-price auctions, which eBay uses, any more complicated than the strategies for first-price auctions here.
3. (A slight counterargument to my agreement with jdcarpe) Moving all auctions to eBay introduces participants who are not part of the community.The bold above is a fact, but my following response to this counterargument admittedly is opinionated: in a lot of cases I've seen, sellers are generally not doing the community any favors by posting auctions in the classifieds section anyway, so my thought is who cares?
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Just to point out, I'm not quite as pragmatic or angry one way or the other.. I'm not upset and my intent is not to rile anyone else up. I just wanted to put this all out there for the sake of discussion, which jwaz asked for.
There is a separate discussion I think is worth opening up: whether a person can advertise his own eBay auctions here on geekhack. On one hand, some people don't like how the seller is promoting his own item in order to improve the sale of his own item, but on the other hand, it could be that the seller wants to ensure that any buyer out there who really wants the item knows that a sale for it exists. Not sure where I stand on it yet, but just throwing this out there. Maybe a possible solution is ensuring that it's not really simply just new member spam - so maybe a higher post count, plus some further qualification (e.g. high HeatWare or eBay feedback review numbers/scores).