Ananda
At 04:10 PM 10/26/00 -0400, you wrote:
A quick look on ebay shows basically-identical Playstation 2 units selling
with high variance in prices. For example, a unit sold at 7:58 this
morning for $960, to which $25 would be added for overnight
delivery. Another unit sold for $1325 at 7:41 this morning with free
overnight delivery. Same unit. Another sold for $315 that morning at
5:44 am. $20 shipping was to be added for that unit.
Some interesting questions come out of this....
1) Why didn't Sony just put some kind of special stamp on the first
100,000 units, designating them as "first units" and selling them for $800
or whatever it figured the market clearing price would be, then selling
subsequent standard units for the $300? Avoiding antitrust action of some
kind? Protecting consumer loyalty? What?
2) Why aren't auction participants spending 5 minutes of searching to save
hundreds of dollars? Search costs are quite low on ebay....
On Thu, 26 Oct 2000, Chris Auld wrote:
> And now for something completely different: Playstation 2 was introduced
> today, with a retail price of $300 and "only" 500,000 units available.
> They're selling on Ebay for over $1,500. Sure wish I'd pre-ordered a
> thousand or so....
>
>
> Chris Auld (403)220-4098
> Economics, University of Calgary <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Calgary, Alberta, Canada <URL:http://jerry.ss.ucalgary.ca/>
>
>
>
