[meteorite-list] Steve Arnold's Famous Reverse Auction

Mon Apr 28 23:20:08 EDT 2008

See what I am getting at? It is a stupid idea, done to
fool people into bidding on things and no one has an
idea what the hell is going on. I remember another
disastrous auction like that in Tucson last year,
there was no repeat this year thank god.
Wanna have a sale, then put the meteorites on eBay,
let buyers see who wants it the most. Easy, legal, and
no scams can take place. High bidder gets the worm.
I just think these types of things are like a county
carnival, where carnies show you the big stuffed
animal you can win for your lady, only by throwing a
ball through that hole, except what you don't know is
that you have to do it a hundred times to get that
stupid toy, and you could just buy the damn thing for
1o% of what you eventually put into trying to win it.
Just my opinion, which is what Steve asked for.
Michael Farmer

--- mexicodoug at aim.com wrote:

> Hi Darren,
> 
> You might get away with calling it a "Dutch Auction"
> by someone else's 
> definition (wikipedia isn't always right? I dont
> know).
> 
> I've always thought of a Dutch Auction as being an
> auction where shares 
> of items are available to several people and the
> successful lowest 
> bidder determines the price they all get making
> everyone above him/her 
> very happy as they did not pay their maximum offer. 
> What people do to 
> liquidate companies in shares.  In the case it is a
> single item, I fail 
> to see how the heart of the Dutch idea (where some
> people get a share 
> of the item for less than they would have otherwise
> offered) is 
> implemented.  It is in effect a Dutch Auction of
> one.  Kind of like 
> your girlfriend saying, ok, let's do Dutch, but I
> won't show up, so all 
> yopu have to do is pay your part.
> 
> The best parallel I can see is a "Going out of
> Business Sale", where 
> things are marked down until they are all gone. 
> Those aren't called 
> auctions, just sales...
> 
> The closest I remember for a Dutch Auction in the
> meteorite community 
> was for Campo Sales, and more recently a Dutch
> Auction on "Mali".  Only 
> in both cases, it would have been more fun for the
> higher buyers if 
> they paid the lowest price, and not been clipped
> like a sinking stock.  
> But they didn't, so they weren't really Dutch
> auctions.
> 
> If you wanted to make a meteorite auction a Dutch
> auction, I'd think 
> you could cut up a hundred credit card sizes of
> Esquel.  The offer them 
> Dutch, and the hundred buyers would pay the price of
> the 100th lowest 
> bid and all would get them for less than they
> wanted.  If only 50 
> people bid a hundred dollas each, and one bid one
> cent, for a total of 
> 51 bidders, all would walk off with a piece for
> $0.01 each.
> 
> This is not what Steve is doing.  It is a Dutch
> auction of 1 item which 
> to me removes the auction just like a Dutch date of
> one person.  Why 
> the need to call it any kind of auction?  When you
> buy a house at a 
> buyers' auction, you compete with bidders to pay
> more but get a deal.  
> When you have a Seller's auction, still my head
> hurts as to what that 
> means.
> 
> Steve #1 is offering some good deals, that's what
> counts, all the 
> dealers like to put on a show, so maybe some good
> deals will be 
> available.  Darren, you say you aren't so
> interested. If there was a 
> piece you always wanted going up under an "all
> pieces must go" sale, I 
> think we could all be interested to follow up.
> 
> Finally, just for fun: Suppose you had an expensive
> meteorite.  For 
> argument's sake, the Brenham oriented pallasite. 
> Suppose no one could 
> afford the cash, but the finder wanted to sell out. 
> He could sell the 
> piece in % and it could go on display in a museum
> for 5 years.  At 
> which point it might be put up for sale, whether by
> some members buying 
> out others, or to a third party.  Just a thought,
> though the claims 
> would have to be careful not to represent it as a
> marketable investment 
> - that s illegal for good reason.
> 
> Best wishes
> Doug
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Darren Garrison <cynapse at charter.net>
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Sent: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:44 pm
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Steve Arnold's Famous
> Reverse Auction
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:23:15 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:
> 
> >Of course that isnt how it works, so tell me how
> the
> >lowest bidder get the piece? Just a scam, a
> gimmick,
> >an auction that doesnt make sense.
> 
> I don't think what Steve is offering fits the
> definition of a reverse 
> auction:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_auction
> 
> I think what he means is still an auction where the
> highest bidder 
> wins, except
> that he doesn't know the inital asking price or what
> the other bidders 
> offer.
> And (maybe?) the top bidder pays his bid, and not
> the smallest 
> increment above
> the next highest bidder?
> 
> Personally, that wouldn't work for me-- I'm too much
> of a bargain 
> hunter.  I
> want to hear a price for something (or at least see
> what other people 
> are
> offering) and not just hear "how much will you give
> me?".
> 
> I was thinking "silent auction" is what Steve is
> wanting, but that term 
> doesn't
> seem to fit, either.  If it was as I was describing,
> it looks like it 
> would be
> a:
> 
> "Sealed-bid first-price auction: Also known as
> Sealed High-Bid Auction 
> or
> First-Price Sealed-Bid Auction (FPSB). In this type
> of auction all 
> bidders
> simultaneously submit bids so that no bidder knows
> the bid of any other
> participant. The highest bidder pays the price they
> submitted. "
> 
> but, looking at the defintions, he might mean a:
> 
> "Dutch auction: In the traditional Dutch auction the
> auctioneer begins 
> with a
> high asking price, which is lowered until some
> participant is willing 
> to accept
> the auctioneer's price, or a predetermined minimum
> price is reached. 
> The winning
> participant pays the last announced price."
> 
> from:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction
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