[meteorite-list] Steve Arnold's Famous Reverse Auction

From: mexicodoug at aim.com <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:11:51 -0400
Message-ID: <8CA77BDE67194B6-1788-1B2F_at_webmail-da03.sysops.aol.com>

Hi Darren,

You might get away with calling it a "Dutch Auction" by someone else's
definition (wikipedia isn't always right? I dont know).

I've always thought of a Dutch Auction as being an auction where shares
of items are available to several people and the successful lowest
bidder determines the price they all get making everyone above him/her
very happy as they did not pay their maximum offer. What people do to
liquidate companies in shares. In the case it is a single item, I fail
to see how the heart of the Dutch idea (where some people get a share
of the item for less than they would have otherwise offered) is
implemented. It is in effect a Dutch Auction of one. Kind of like
your girlfriend saying, ok, let's do Dutch, but I won't show up, so all
yopu have to do is pay your part.

The best parallel I can see is a "Going out of Business Sale", where
things are marked down until they are all gone. Those aren't called
auctions, just sales...

The closest I remember for a Dutch Auction in the meteorite community
was for Campo Sales, and more recently a Dutch Auction on "Mali". Only
in both cases, it would have been more fun for the higher buyers if
they paid the lowest price, and not been clipped like a sinking stock.
But they didn't, so they weren't really Dutch auctions.

If you wanted to make a meteorite auction a Dutch auction, I'd think
you could cut up a hundred credit card sizes of Esquel. The offer them
Dutch, and the hundred buyers would pay the price of the 100th lowest
bid and all would get them for less than they wanted. If only 50
people bid a hundred dollas each, and one bid one cent, for a total of
51 bidders, all would walk off with a piece for $0.01 each.

This is not what Steve is doing. It is a Dutch auction of 1 item which
to me removes the auction just like a Dutch date of one person. Why
the need to call it any kind of auction? When you buy a house at a
buyers' auction, you compete with bidders to pay more but get a deal.
When you have a Seller's auction, still my head hurts as to what that
means.

Steve #1 is offering some good deals, that's what counts, all the
dealers like to put on a show, so maybe some good deals will be
available. Darren, you say you aren't so interested. If there was a
piece you always wanted going up under an "all pieces must go" sale, I
think we could all be interested to follow up.

Finally, just for fun: Suppose you had an expensive meteorite. For
argument's sake, the Brenham oriented pallasite. Suppose no one could
afford the cash, but the finder wanted to sell out. He could sell the
piece in % and it could go on display in a museum for 5 years. At
which point it might be put up for sale, whether by some members buying
out others, or to a third party. Just a thought, though the claims
would have to be careful not to represent it as a marketable investment
- that s illegal for good reason.

Best wishes
Doug




-----Original Message-----
From: Darren Garrison <cynapse at charter.net>
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:44 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Steve Arnold's Famous Reverse Auction



On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:23:15 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:

>Of course that isnt how it works, so tell me how the
>lowest bidder get the piece? Just a scam, a gimmick,
>an auction that doesnt make sense.

I don't think what Steve is offering fits the definition of a reverse
auction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_auction

I think what he means is still an auction where the highest bidder
wins, except
that he doesn't know the inital asking price or what the other bidders
offer.
And (maybe?) the top bidder pays his bid, and not the smallest
increment above
the next highest bidder?

Personally, that wouldn't work for me-- I'm too much of a bargain
hunter. I
want to hear a price for something (or at least see what other people
are
offering) and not just hear "how much will you give me?".

I was thinking "silent auction" is what Steve is wanting, but that term
doesn't
seem to fit, either. If it was as I was describing, it looks like it
would be
a:

"Sealed-bid first-price auction: Also known as Sealed High-Bid Auction
or
First-Price Sealed-Bid Auction (FPSB). In this type of auction all
bidders
simultaneously submit bids so that no bidder knows the bid of any other
participant. The highest bidder pays the price they submitted. "

but, looking at the defintions, he might mean a:

"Dutch auction: In the traditional Dutch auction the auctioneer begins
with a
high asking price, which is lowered until some participant is willing
to accept
the auctioneer's price, or a predetermined minimum price is reached.
The winning
participant pays the last announced price."

from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction
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Received on Mon 28 Apr 2008 11:11:51 PM PDT