

Ask HN: (General-purpose) Reverse Auctions — undeveloped or needless? - yrashk

I've been playing with an idea of reverse auctions a bit — it appears that there isn't much reverse auction systems around — at least nothing that you can compare with even a fraction of forward auctions' market.<p>Though I am not sure — does that mean nobody's really interested in reverse auctions (neither buyers nor sellers) or is this niche is just undeveloped and will kind of welcome new players?<p>Of course there is no firm answer, but what do you guys think about it?<p>P.S. From Wikipedia: "It is a type of auction in which the role of the buyer and seller are reversed, with the primary objective to drive purchase prices downward. In an ordinary auction (also known as a forward auction), buyers compete to obtain a good or service. In a reverse auction, sellers compete to obtain business."
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zacharye
I think the main issue is that the concept of a reverse auction is not
practical for the seller in an online environment. In a reverse auction, the
seller must work for a sale whereas in a conventional auction the site and the
buyers do the work for them. Why should the seller "work" for a sale if (s)he
doesn't need to?

On the flip side of the coin, it is generally accepted that if a consumer
wants to purchase something (s)he must shop for it. So far attempts to revamp
this process have not been widely adopted. Ebay tried a reverse auction
segment of the site for a while and I don't think it worked out very well.
That's not to say it can't be done of course, just that eBay couldn't do it
with its approach - and all of its resources.

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yrashk
hm, I haven't realized ebay had this — it might be interesting to know how
exactly they did it.

While I was playing with this idea, I though that these things might help
reverse auction solution:

* powerful market research/alert tool for sellers — i.e. sellers would need a powerful toolset to monitor demand on an RA site.

* social networks _integration_ and stuff like that — RFQ information shouldn't be locked in a single site — it should be spread to wherever potential sellers might find it.

* "ning.com" for auctions

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zacharye
It will be an interesting part of your process to learn that eBay's solution
is in fact still live.

wantitnow.ebay.com

I had no idea it was still live. I think that the very existance of this site,
and the fact that you've never even heard of it, can play a large (and
positive) role in your development process. If you plan to attack this you
have your work cut out for you. You also, however, have a great tool in Want
it Now - theoretically "what not to do".

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yrashk
whoa, eBay still has this feature and there are active listings! :)

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bigbang
Reverse auction already exists in some form. One thing, that comes to my mind
is bidding for contracts. Normally outsourced companies bid lower to increase
the chance of getting the contract(but yeah not always the lowest bidder gets
the contract).

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rincewind
The german site my-hammer.de does reverse auctions for craftspeople.

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crazyirish
scriptlance and other similar sites are essentially reverse auctions.

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yrashk
though scriptlance is quite far away from being a general-purpose reverse
auction, isn'it?

I am not to say that there are NO general-purpose reverse auctions. There are
_some_

