IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/manchs/v77y2009i4p411-429.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Choice Of Opening Prices On Ebay

Author

Listed:
  • MIKHAIL I. MELNIK
  • YONGSHENG XU
  • JAMES ALM

Abstract

In this paper we examine the choice of the opening bid on eBay by sellers of US Morgan dollar coins. We find that the opening bid is a function of the observed characteristics of the past transaction prices for the coin, the seller's characteristics and the fee structure imposed by the auctioneer. The results demonstrate that increasing the opening bid fee structure induces a lower optimal opening bid, while an increase in the degree of risk in the price distribution increases the opening bid. These results have important implications for market structure of online auction sites.

Suggested Citation

  • Mikhail I. Melnik & Yongsheng Xu & James Alm, 2009. "The Choice Of Opening Prices On Ebay," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 77(4), pages 411-429, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:manchs:v:77:y:2009:i:4:p:411-429
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9957.2009.02105.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9957.2009.02105.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9957.2009.02105.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:jindec:v:48:y:2000:i:3:p:227-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    3. Jean-Jacques Laffont, 1989. "The Economics of Uncertainty and Information," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121360, December.
    4. Paul Resnick & Richard Zeckhauser & John Swanson & Kate Lockwood, 2006. "The value of reputation on eBay: A controlled experiment," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 9(2), pages 79-101, June.
    5. David Lucking‐Reiley & Doug Bryan & Naghi Prasad & Daniel Reeves, 2007. "Pennies From Ebay: The Determinants Of Price In Online Auctions," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 223-233, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Kang Ernest & Shiu, Ji-Liang & Sun, Chia-Hung, 2013. "How different are consumers in Internet auction markets? Evidence from Japan and Taiwan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 1-12.
    2. Chia-Hung D. Sun & Yi-Bin Chiu & Ming-Fei Hsu, 2016. "The Determinants Of Price In Online Auctions: More Evidence From Quantile Regression," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(3), pages 268-286, April.
    3. Shiu, Ji-Liang & Sun, Chia-Hung D., 2014. "Modeling and estimating returns to seller reputation with unobserved heterogeneity in online auctions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 59-67.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andreas Diekmann & Ben Jann & David Wyder, 2004. "Trust and Reputation in Internet Auctions," ETH Zurich Sociology Working Papers 1, ETH Zurich, Chair of Sociology, revised Oct 2007.
    2. Ravi Subramanian & Ramanath Subramanyam, 2012. "Key Factors in the Market for Remanufactured Products," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 315-326, April.
    3. Grégory Jolivet & Bruno Jullien & Fabien Postel-Vinay, 2014. "Reputation and Pricing on the e-Market: Evidence from a Major French Platform," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03460312, HAL.
    4. Engström, Per & Forsell, Eskil, 2018. "Demand effects of consumers’ stated and revealed preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 43-61.
    5. Tobias J. Klein & Christian Lambertz & Konrad O. Stahl, 2016. "Market Transparency, Adverse Selection, and Moral Hazard," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(6), pages 1677-1713.
    6. Bauner, Christoph, 2015. "Mechanism choice and the buy-it-now auction: A structural model of competing buyers and sellers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 19-31.
    7. Richard Cebula & Richard McGrath, 2005. "Evidence of liquidity constraints found in theme park ticket auctions," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 29(1), pages 112-121, March.
    8. Nunley, John M. & Owens, Mark F. & Howard, R. Stephen, 2011. "The effects of information and competition on racial discrimination: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 670-679.
    9. Luís Cabral & Ali Hortacsu, 2004. "The Dynamics of Seller Reputation: Theory and Evidence from eBay," Working Papers 04-05, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    10. John M. Nunley & Mark F. Owens & R. Stephen Howard, 2010. "The Effects of Competition and Information on Racial Discrimination: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Working Papers 201007, Middle Tennessee State University, Department of Economics and Finance.
    11. Klein, T.J. & Lambertz, C. & Stahl, K., 2013. "Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard in Anonymous Markets," Discussion Paper 2013-032, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    12. Gary Bolton & Ben Greiner & Axel Ockenfels, 2013. "Engineering Trust: Reciprocity in the Production of Reputation Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(2), pages 265-285, January.
    13. Ian Ayres & Mahzarin Banaji & Christine Jolls, 2015. "Race effects on eBay," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 46(4), pages 891-917, October.
    14. Quariguasi Frota Neto, João & Dutordoir, Marie, 2020. "Mapping the market for remanufacturing: An application of “Big Data” analytics," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    15. Svensson, Jakob, 2000. "When is foreign aid policy credible? Aid dependence and conditionality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 61-84, February.
    16. Christopher Schlägel & Birgitta Wolff, 2010. "Länderspezifische Effekte von Reputation und Information in Internetauktionen," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 62(62), pages 14-41, January.
    17. Christopher Helm & Tim A. Herberger & Marcel Tyrell, 2021. "Demand dynamics across secondary German Book markets: an information aggregation and synthetization approach," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 567-596, June.
    18. Axel Ockenfels, 2009. "Marktdesign und Experimentelle Wirtschaftsforschung," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10(s1), pages 31-53, May.
    19. Katkar Rama & Reiley David H, 2007. "Public versus Secret Reserve Prices in eBay Auctions: Results from a Pokémon Field Experiment," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-25, January.
    20. Dirk Engelmann & Jeff Frank & Alexander K. Koch & Marieta Valente, 2023. "Second‐chance offers and buyer reputation systems: theory and evidence on auctions with default," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 54(3), pages 484-511, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:manchs:v:77:y:2009:i:4:p:411-429. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/semanuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.