Interesting experiment is going on just now.

A seller with some 400 feedback offered a new Polaroid PDC 800 camera on eBay on Saturday January 30th. This is a nice, high end digital camera. The camera opened at a dollar with no reserve. Shipping fees for all cameras are set at $11.50. The seller on AU is a "BidSafe" seller with a 9 rating.

On Feb. 1, two identical cameras were offered on AU in the Club99 auction. The auctions, also opened at practically a dollar (99 cents) and are also being listed for 7 days. One is listed at the top of the Club 99 listings ending at 12:01 Monday morning and the other at the bottom of the Club99 listings (ending Monday evening at about 9:30).

First, I would request that anyone who reads about this experiement not bid on any of these cameras as that would skew the results.

Anyway, at the time of this posting, the camera on eBay has three bids (and three bidders) with the high bid being $51.00. Time left on the auction is: Five days and 7+ hours and cameras of this design have been successfully selling in excess of $250 although some have failed to meet reserve at both higher and lower amounts.

The first of the two cameras on AU has collected 18 bids from six bidders and the top bid, with six days and 6+ hours left stands at $82.00.

The second camera on AU, the one selling at 9:33 p.m. has 7 days, 7 hours left to run before it ends. It's high bid is presently $60.00 and has collected 19 bids from 3 distinct bidders.

It will be interesting which camera gains the high bid and how many bids will have been placed.

If nothing else, this experiment does show that when the product is the same, people bid higher, earlier on AU than eBay.

As far as the final outcome is concerned though, we'll have to wait an see. I'll be posting updates through the conclusion of both auctions.

FYI: The auction number on eBay is: Item #62156788

The AU auction numbers are: 410542 and 410275.

Again, this is not a soliticitation and I ask all reading this not to bid on any of these items.

neomax

So far, the one camera
 

The camera on ebay has zoomed this evening with the price going to 127.50 at last view -- still well below the expected selling price but, with a day's more exposure, well ahead of the same camera's on AU.

The eBay control added three more bidders to the mix bringing the total bidders up to six. A total of 11 bids have been placed.

neomax
 

Today at 11:41 am EDT:

The two no-reserve cameras on AU now stand at $150.00 with 4 days and 12 hours remaining on the first and 5 days, 9 hours remaining on the second. Both have added bidders to the mix and the camera that is first to close (@ 12:01 am 2/8/98) has garnered 27 bids. The second, which closes at 9:33 p.m. that night now has 38 bids.

The exact camera on eBay has 3 days and 12 hours left on the clock before the hammer falls. It now has 13 bids and the high bid stands at $135.50.

A second PDC 800 has entered the field on eBay but its results will be followed. However, because it is a "reserve" auction, it is not directly comparable. However, its presence does "even the field" a little as eBay now offers the same number of these cameras as does AU.

neomax
 

All three "test" auctions each currently have 7 individual bidders competing for these "no reserve" auctions.

The interesting thing, though, is that most of the bidders on both the AU and eBay no-reserve auctions have "ratings"... i.e. have bought before. Certainly, the average rating on AU is lower than that on eBay but who knows, some of those folks may have 100+ ratings on eBay as well:-)

This contrasts with the "reserve" auction for the same camera on eBay (which is not formally part of the test because it is a reserve auction.) Of the nine bidders in that auction, seven have no rating!

While this test is statistically insignificant, it does suggest that those who are more knowledgeable and reliable auction bidders do shy away from reserve auctions, leaving that action to the "newbies" who probably haven't read (on eBay) the fine print.

Anyway, the facts:

AU (midnight) 7 bidders 3 with "0" feedback
AU (primetime) 7 bidders 2 with "0" feedback
eBay(no res) 7 bidders 2 with "0" feedback
eBay (res) 9 bidders 7 with "0" feedback

BTW: the eBay reserve auction has already amassed more bids (16) than the eBay nores auction (13) even though it has six days to go. Both, BTW, trail the AU auctions in the number of bids (38 and 27) as mentioned in the previous post.

neomax
 

Oh well, this post was the same as the one above.

neomax

[This message has been edited by neomax (edited 02-03-99).]
 

The no-reserve auction for the PDC 800 on eBay has jumped back into the lead as the clock closing in on "sell day" -- about 35 hours to go. The leading bid was $172.50 with 22 bids from 9 distinct bidders.

Bids on the AU cameras stood at $160 and $150 respectively with 29 bids on the first ($160) camera slated to sell some 60 hours from now.

The second AU example will close in about 80 hours. Its price stands at $150 and it has 7 active bidders who've placed 37 offers.

A second Reserve auction PDC 800 has been entered on eBay and, like the first, it is a category featured auction. BTW: the first of the two reserve auction cameras has failed to meet its reserve at $222.50. Notably, these reserve auctions continue to bring in newbies with the first reserve auction counting 13 bidders, nine of which have ratings of "0" and two more, who have ratings of "1". That trend toward newbies in these reserve featured auctions holds with 5 of 6 bidders having the magic '0' feedback.

neomax
 

Yes, the final bids were $282.50 for the eBay PDC 800 and $235.00 for the identical item on AU.

The way the bidding went, the eBay item stood at $203.50 up until 5 hours before the auction's end Saturday night.

The AU auction, which ended a minute after midnight (EDT) Monday morning, had run up to $185 with about 14 minutes left in bidding.

Bidding for both auctions intensified at the wire and, in the case of the AU auction it was a new bidder who came in in the last minutes to capture the item with a series of last minute bids.

The remaining camera on AU held the $160 bid it has had for the last several days. A similar bidding frenzy is expected for this evening when it closes at 9:33 p.m. EST.

The seller on AU, BTW, had bought the camera on a retail "auction" site and reports that the $235 sales price was one that was profitable. In interview with the seller, she said that the sale was great as it was offered as a club99 item which are supposed to be great bargains. You make your money when you buy anyway, she said and I made enough on this one I can't lose money on these cameras now.

neomax