Aten_Imago
Banned
Re: Supply/ Demand,Market Pressures & Pricing
This thread reflects the growing realization in the CPF that price structure is a complex puzzle to solve in the E-Commerce world we now live in. I've studied what auctions(especially on-line ones) teach us about pricing. One conclusion I came to was that auctions establish the market 'value' of an item or lot only within a particular community of interest. In the case of E-bay, E-bay bidders of a particular COI -Flashlight Affectionados, for example. Auction values rarely ever reflect a 'universal' value for an item.That would require a wider demographic of customers to be worked into the equation. For a long time, E-bay was mostly a 'secondary' sales channel for people to dispose of unwanted, overstocked or otherwise difficult ($) to market products.Basically, an electronic flea-market. It has now evolved into being a proxy 'price-setting' arena of a peculiar kind. Because the psychology of the auction is based on letting the marketplace set the price (Lots of E-bay merch doesn't sell),it can often mean that items will sell for Much more than thier retail value and sometimes, gems will close at Much less than thier true market value.This makes E-bay and other general auction arenas -a dicey place to sell as an alternative to e-commerce retail channels such as Amazon, Yahoo or Dedicated E-Commerce.The auction model for price-setting can make or break a business,or even an industry(Think air fares)- depending on how this channel is used.
Keeping an auction for a specialty item such as High-end flashlights for example, within the purvey of a not-for-profit arena such as CPF, is the smart way to protect everyone's interests- those of the makers ,customers and auction house (CPF) alike. Just please let's not see the eventual fee gouging that E-Bay succumbed to. Evidence points to the possibility that this gouging could bring the King of the E-Auctions down. I believe the history books call that GREED. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
This thread reflects the growing realization in the CPF that price structure is a complex puzzle to solve in the E-Commerce world we now live in. I've studied what auctions(especially on-line ones) teach us about pricing. One conclusion I came to was that auctions establish the market 'value' of an item or lot only within a particular community of interest. In the case of E-bay, E-bay bidders of a particular COI -Flashlight Affectionados, for example. Auction values rarely ever reflect a 'universal' value for an item.That would require a wider demographic of customers to be worked into the equation. For a long time, E-bay was mostly a 'secondary' sales channel for people to dispose of unwanted, overstocked or otherwise difficult ($) to market products.Basically, an electronic flea-market. It has now evolved into being a proxy 'price-setting' arena of a peculiar kind. Because the psychology of the auction is based on letting the marketplace set the price (Lots of E-bay merch doesn't sell),it can often mean that items will sell for Much more than thier retail value and sometimes, gems will close at Much less than thier true market value.This makes E-bay and other general auction arenas -a dicey place to sell as an alternative to e-commerce retail channels such as Amazon, Yahoo or Dedicated E-Commerce.The auction model for price-setting can make or break a business,or even an industry(Think air fares)- depending on how this channel is used.
Keeping an auction for a specialty item such as High-end flashlights for example, within the purvey of a not-for-profit arena such as CPF, is the smart way to protect everyone's interests- those of the makers ,customers and auction house (CPF) alike. Just please let's not see the eventual fee gouging that E-Bay succumbed to. Evidence points to the possibility that this gouging could bring the King of the E-Auctions down. I believe the history books call that GREED. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
