

Ask HN: "stock market" mechanism for stuff? - Tichy

I've just been wondering if trading used stuff in a way similar to the stock market could work.<p>What I mean is: sellers enter the lowest bid they would accept, buyers enter the highest bid they would be prepared to pay, resolve by some algorithm (I don't even know exactly how the resolution algorithm for the "real" stock market works).<p>The problem to be solved: buyers can instantly buy the things they want, or at least more instantly than they could on ebay. Sellers could still be more or less sure to get the appropriate market price.<p>Problem with implementation: other than stock, things are not always identical (wear and tear). Probably it would only work for things that are traded a lot (iPods, and stuff ...). Maybe the wear and tear thing could be resolved by providing set categories (new, almost new, worn...), and users could enter numbers for each category, or enter default penalties in their profile (if used offer = 75%*offer). It wouldn't be a precise match, but maybe the convenience would offset the losses incurred by the inexact matching.<p>What do you think?<p>I have been looking to buy a Wii on ebay for quite a while now, hoping to save about 40€ compared to buying it in the shop. Of course it is totally not worth the effort - sorting through the auctions is time consuming, and then you still can't be sure that you will actually win the auction (usually I don't). Ebay's system forces you to pay attention until the last minute of the auctions. Interesting auctions might not finish for a couple of days - so I wait, and in the end it amounts to nothing.
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bdfh42
There is a start-up that is trying a market making model for buying and
selling "stuff" at <http://www.wigix.com/> plus a fair bit of HN discussion at
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=191774>

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Tichy
Interesting, thanks!

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noodle
i would argue that ebay's system does NOT force you to pay attention until the
last minute.

if you want an item, enter in the maximum amount you're willing to pay. it'll
re-bid by proxy until you win the item or someone is willing to pay more than
you. if you were willing to pay even more beyond what you entered, you
should've put in a higher proxy bid.

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Tichy
In theory, yes, however, the psychology of people makes it necessary to only
place your bid within the last 10 seconds of the auction expiring. Otherwise
the other bidders will get angry for being outbid and start bidding more than
they originally wanted.

That is probably also the reason that ebay forbids sniper software: without
snipers, people will bid higher, which is good for ebay (revenue == percentage
of final price).

