The Parentonomics 1st Copy auction is over and I am very pleased with the result; the winning bid was very flattering A$1,001.55. I’ll post more over at Game Theorist when I have spoken to the winner. For now I thought I’d graph what I learned about demand. Turns out that so long as there are at least 33 buyers of the book at its retail price, it will do better at that price than at $1,000. Of course, that high price was most likely a result of the ‘charity’ aspect of this auction. Who knows? It could be an asset.

But I did learn something about all of that. First, eBay is not the place for such things. For starters, there is no opportunity for jump bidding as eBay automates the bids. So there may have been someone who wanted to denate $2,000 but unless there were two, they would be better off doing outside of the auction. Second, because eBay requires PayPal as an option in Australia, once it is there it is used. So that cost me an extra $20. Not that I am complaining about all of that. I am just saying that perhaps the sellers griping about eBay Australia’s tactics have a point.