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Internet Auctions and Game Theory

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INTERNET AUCTIONS AND GAME THEORY

Table of content I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 3 II. MAIN PART........................................................................................................................................................ 4 1. EBAY AND INTERNET AUCTIONS TYPES ............................................................................................................................ 4 2. E-­‐BAY BIDDING PROCESS.................................................................................................................................................... 5 3. BIDDING STRATEGIES UNDER GAME THEORY ................................................................................................................. 5 A. Proxy Biding ................................................................................................................................................................... 6 B. Bid Sniping ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Bid Sniping: the Optimum Game Theory Strategy to Win Online EBay Auctions ..................................... 6 III. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................... 8 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................................... 9

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I. Introduction The Internet is being used for a wide range of purposes. One of the most important uses of the Internet apart from the fact that it has made communication much easier and cheap has been business. The fact that the Internet offers a platform to conduct businesses has prompted almost all major retailers to have online presence. The Internet was initially used extensively for e-marketing. The development of online payment option has now made it convenient for the technology to offer a complete range of business services that including shopping and even bidding for products online. The evolution of online auction websites has opened up a vast expanse of opportunities for people trading using the online medium by introducing new concepts such as e-auctions. Google add auctions are one prime example how the Internet has allowed people to use the internet to enhance their marketing experience. One very important website that allows users to bid for products online is the e-bay. The interesting fact however remains the use of game theory to maximize the opportunity to come up with a winning bid at the lowest possible price. Game theory is now being widely employed to make use of the automation that exists in online auctions. In this paper, the various types of bidding strategies that are being used on e-bay are being delved into. The application of game theory provides a number of options to maximize the chances of posting a winning bid. Auction sniping that is widely being used to win e-bay auctions would also be discussed as one of the possible strategies under game theory (Grey& Riley, 2007). The purpose of this paper is to explore the various bidding strategies adopted by bidders in online auctions with special reference to e-bay. The advantage of auction sniping in e-bay is also delved into to determine how the application of game theory can help seal a winning bid at the lowest price on the Internet. A comparison of the strategy employed under game theory with real life auctions is also studied. In the proceeding sections, a brief analysis regarding the basic functionality and the type of auction used in EBay is examined. Various Game Theory strategies used in EBay and other online auctions are then studied. Lastly, we inspect how snipe auctions help maximize revenue for the buyers on EBay and why it is such as successful strategy in typical Vickrey auctions practiced by online auction companies such as EBay. 3

INTERNET AUCTIONS AND GAME THEORY

II. Main part 1. EBay and Internet auctions types Online auction websites are engaged in buying and selling of billions of dollars of goods and services all around the world. EBay is the world leader company in the online auction field. The website provides customers a platform to trade goods and services on either a fixed price items basis or an auction items basis. EBay opened in 1995 as the first consumer to consumer (C2C) Internet based auction market. The aim of his founder, Pierre Omidya was to create a central market to sell or buy a large number of items. EBay buyers do not essentially have to meet at the same place to take part in the auction usually three to ten days in advance. This allows bidder to bid whenever they want to during this allocated period. Generally, two different auction mechanisms are used namely Dutch and English auctions. Other auction types that are used in daily life include sealed first price, sealed second price and multiunit auctions. In an English auction, a reserve or minimum price is set (Hughes, 2012). In a Dutch auction a high price is set and then lowered to what the highest bidder is willing to pay. For the purpose of this study, the attention remains on English style auction as it is the more frequently used on the website. The eBay online auction is similar to the traditional live auction, where a talking auctioneer stands in front of a room trying to persuade possible buyers to bid for the product standing in front of the auction. The difference is that the website with a special auction software is playing the role of the auctioneer. Besides, fellow bidders don’t need to be in the same room, they can be anywhere on the globe provided they can access the website online. To win an auction, bidders must have the highest bid when the time limit is over. The bidder’s strategy is crucial to win the auction. This essentially increases the importance of game theory in posting a winning bid (Cabral & Hortacsu, 2006),.

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2. E-­‐Bay Bidding Process

Under normal English Auction, whenever an auctioneer wants to sell a product a standard reserve price is assigned. This price is the minimum price at which the item can be sold. The auctioneer has the option to set a secret reservation price as well. When a bidder logs on to the website, he can look up for items available for sale providing various options to sort them regarding type, time of auction and price of the product. The bidder is also able to see the bidding history of the item. He can see who has already placed his bid apart from the bidding history of the other bidders. This information can help identify the strategies of other bidders. Moreover, a feedback rating principle is also in place. When the auction is finished, both the buyer and the auctioneer are recommended to leave a feedback towards their trading partner concerning their transaction. The feedback can be positive, negative or neutral. This feedback can increase or decrease the average feedback score of their trading partner; this feedback is shown as a percentage with a high percentage indicating good trading partners. The feedback score is significant since it is the most prominent indicator of a member reputation on the website.

3. Bidding Strategies under Game Theory

The biding strategies on eBay can be analyzed by considering the number of applications of game theory. In a typical bidding game, the player is the bidder who is looking for an optimal strategy to win the bid at the lowest possible price. Three elements of a bidding game would therefore involve the bidder, strategies and payoffs. Two main strategies that are used in a typical eBay Auction are discussed below:

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A. Proxy Biding

Proxy bidding will place the highest bid a bidder is willing to give away for an item upfront. EBay will then automatically outbid other bidder till your highest bid has been reached. So, EBay place automatically for you the lowest bid possible while you are still winning the auction. The auctioneer does not know the highest bid. Therefore, there is no threat that the auctioneer would outbid others with an aim to get other bidders pay more. Proxy bidding is an efficient way to let eBay do the work for you. You don’t need to check all the time if you are still the winning bidder because eBay does that for you. It is very safe and it is not time consuming. The only way you can lose a bid is that the item was sold for a bigger amount of money you were willing to pay for that item.
B. Bid Sniping

Bid sniping is most likely the most common bidding strategy on EBay. Bid Sniping involves bidding as late as possible during the auction closing time, usually within the final few minutes or seconds of the auction. The aim is that competing bidders will not notice your bid so that they won’t have any chances to outbid the bid which is placed in the final few seconds due to lack of time. This strategy may be defective for a number of reasons. EBay implements an automatic bid increment method; the proxy bidding system. As an example, under the current system, the winning bid of an auction is appears to be $50. Nevertheless, there is a probability that the actual winning bidder is much higher $200. The bid of $60 will only increase the existing selling price to $65. The threat of the sniping biding strategy is that the final maximum bid may still be under the current highest bid. Bid sniping will therefore only raise the price the winning bidder pays making it less efficient for the winning bidder. Secondly, bid sniping can be risky because bidders wait until the final seconds of an auction closing time to bid. As there are many variables that could go wrong, there is a possibility that the chance to place a winning bid on the item is lost. Finally, bid sniping usually misleads other bidders into thinking the item will sell for a smaller price than normally (Mc Dowell et al, 2006).

Bid Sniping: the Optimum Game Theory Strategy to Win Online EBay Auctions

The bid sniping strategy under game theory is usually extremely effective in EBay Auctions. Sniping is regarded as the most efficient technique under game theory whenever there is an incremental auction scenario as in EBay. In the case of EBay, various sniper bidders are

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snipping against other sniper bidders (Hughes, 2012). Even in this case, when other players are playing an incremental strategy, sniping is the best option. In this case, one sniper who places the bid at the very last moment would win. Sniping may result in a situation where the seller feels cheated as even if one buyer is willing to pay a higher price, he would not be able to post it due to time constraints. The proxy bidding system is used to counter this strategy which is being used by many. For this reason, sniping with a maximum value is the optimum strategy for eBay as with would ensure that other snipers are left out of the equation (Standifird et al., 2004). This would ensure that the sniper bids the absolute maximum that he is ready to pay in the last seconds since other snipers are looking to beat the incremental price. With the proxy system in place, the maximum bid ensures that your maximum price is already registered (Houser & Wooders,2006). Sniping essentially turns the eBay auction into a Vickery auction in which each player does not know about the bid the other player submits simultaneously. The highest bidder would win the product at the price of the loser. This is also known as the second price sealed bid auction. This means that the bidder should always enter the Maximum bid in the final few seconds to outwit other snipers. This can optimize the shopping experience using game theory. This generally happens in real life whenever sealed bids are invited. The Auction therefore is a Vickery Auction (“Yahoo”, 2008). This auction makes sure that the bidder does not lose unless the maximum price he is accepting to pay is above the second highest bid. Bid sniping is essentially deemed to be moral under the concept of egoistic utility where the action is judged upon the maximum benefit it has for the person playing the game.

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III. Conclusion

The Bid sniping strategy of game theory has been the best answer to proxy bidding and the incremental bidding techniques used in EBay. The strategy ensures that if the maximum value that the buyer is willing to pay is used, it can result in a winning bid at the lowest possible price without giving other bidders the chance to snipe back by placing the highest bid. Under the egoistic utility paradigm, the strategy works effectively as it maximizes returns for the bidder.

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References

Cabral, I. M. B., & Hortaçsu, A. (2006): “The Dynamics of Seller Reputation: Theory and Evidence from EBay,” Mimeograph. Gray, S. & Reiley, D. (2007). Measuring the Benefits to Sniping on EBay. Department of Economics Unversity of Arizona. Retrieved from http://econ.arizona.edu/downloads/working_papers/Econ-WP-07-13.pdf Hughes, B. (2012). Game Theory and EBay Bidding Strategy. Game Theory Strategies. Retreived from http://www.gametheorystrategies.com/2012/02/23/game-theory-andebay-bidding-strategy/ Houser, D., and Wooders, J. (2006): “Reputation in Auctions: Theory, and Evidence from EBay,” Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 15(2), 353–370. Mc Dowell, M., Thom, R., Frank, R. & Bernake, B. (2006). Principles of Economics (European edition), Berkshire: Mcgraw-Hill Standifird, S., Matthew, R., Roelofs, & Yvonne Durham (2004). “The Impact of EBay’s Buy-itnow Function on Bidder Behavior.“ International journal of electronic commerce 9(2), 167-176. “Yahoo”. (2008). Apply Game Theory to Win EBay Auctions. Yahoo Voices. Retreived from http://voices.yahoo.com/applying-game-theory-win-ebay-auctions-774095.html

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