Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!sdcsvax!odin.ucsd.edu!cooper From: cooper@odin.ucsd.edu (Ken Cooper) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: SIMM auctioneering Message-ID: <5000@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> Date: 1 Jun 88 19:15:31 GMT Sender: nobody@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU Reply-To: cooper@odin.ucsd.edu (Ken Cooper) Organization: University of California, San Diego Lines: 51 I have been criticized for auctioning SIMMs using electronic media. I'm not completely sure why, and would like to clarify my perspective on this issue. I apologize if I've crossed a USENET boundary, but I'm not sure what principle has been violated. I assume, since there is an established misc.forsale newsgroup, that the sale of personal items on the net is not taboo. Further, since I have only posted two articles relating to these SIMMs, the amount of net traffic is not at issue either. It is clear then that the use of auctioning is the source of the problem. What is it that people object to about auctions? For the seller, it has the advantage of allowing the market to set the price; the seller knows s/he won't be selling the product for less than it's worth. For the buyer, it prevents the "damn, I wish I'd checked the news two hours ago" syndrome. Under the terms I've set, for example, all buyers have a window of two weeks to see the offer, and determine what they are willing to pay. What then are the disadvantages? It appears a common misperception that auctioning will overinflate the price. This might be true for Van Gogh's Sunflowers, where there is only one source for the commodity. In the case of SIMMs, this is clearly false: there *are* other sources. Who would be foolish enough to offer me more than they would pay elsewhere? For me as a seller, what was the alternative to auctioning? Forgive me for acting in my own best interest, but I wanted the best price I could find (Wouldn't you?). Since I had no real sense for the value of these SIMMs, the only other choice I could see was to offer them at an overestimated price, and drop it in increments until they sold. This would have wasted more net bandwidth than auctioning by email, and would probably have generated more controversy as well. If you find my self interest distasteful and think I'm taking advantage of this SIMMs shortage, consider the underlying principles of capitalism that are at work here. If I hadn't expected to get a decent price for these SIMMs, I would never have offered them -- I rather enjoyed the extra memory headroom. This is a classic case of Adam Smith's invisible hand at work: as the price has risen, so has the supply. If it weren't for the greed of potential suppliers, there would be no supply. I would appreciate feedback on this subject. I appreciate USENET and the people who contribute to it, and the last thing I want to do is abuse its privileges. Nevertheless, I don't think one should accept rules without examining them first. If auctioning is overstepping the line, I'd like to know why. Ken Cooper ARPA: cooper%cs@ucsd.edu UUCP: ...!ucsd!sdcsvax!cooper COMPUSERVE: 71571,407