Re: UKNM: Quixell - QVC on the Net?

[Steve Bowbrick]

The online auction model is clearly based on the assumption that a

significant proportion of punters will behave irrationally. A recent

Economist article pointed out that auctions make money on the basis that

most winning bids will be *higher* than the fair price. I almost bid on an

Epson USB printer but then checked its 'street price' on the web and found

that the last three Quixell bids were all higher - not just one idiot but

THREE! Worse, I still felt oddly compelled to bid on it!


To finish (and so you don't get the impression that I have an auction

problem... I could give it up any time...), I did indeed bid on a

breadmaker and my bid was the highest but it didn't meet Quixell's reserve

so the breadmaker was withdrawn! I was slightly upset to learn that Quixell

are not sharing the risk and that there may be no real bargains at all.

Depends where they set the reserve, I suppose...


s


At 11:28 AM 10/30/98 +0100, Peter wrote:

>Little to do with marketing, but funny.

>

>Quixell's diversification holds no bounds - they're becoming the Home

>Shopping Channel of the Net, which I guess might be informative about the

>UK Net audience. Check out these offers :

--

Steve Bowbrick                                    Webmedia Group

0171 292 5545                                       0468 257 570


http://www.webmedia.com/steve          mailto:steve@webmedia.com


http://www.bowbrick.com - he's very advanced for his age...