Resale and Bundling in Auctions

Allowing resale in multi-object auctions increases bidders. incentives to jointly reduce demand, because resale increases low-value bidders’ willingness to pay and reduces high-value bidders’ willingness to pay. Therefore (unlike in single-object auctions), resale may reduce the seller’s revenue in multi-object auctions. However, we show that, under reasonable conditions, allowing resale and bundling the objects on sale are “complement strategies” for the seller – by bundling and allowing resale the seller earns a higher revenue than by selling the objects separately and/or not allowing resale. We also analyze how resale affects a bidder’s incentive to unilaterally reduce demand, and we show why allowing resale may reduce efficiency.