A Study of Closed Auctions
on eBay
for Dr. Razzolini’s ECON 540 class at the University
of Mississippi
Within this report you
will find an analysis of ten closed auctions on eBay. The purpose of the analysis is to discover
bidding patterns within the auctions.
The bidding patterns this analysis is particularly focused on includes
the timing of bids and the length of the auctions. Please note that each of the ten auctions were
chosen for this study randomly. The only
criteria used in choosing these closed auctions were having more than 2 total
bids. The data can be found in the table
below.
|
eBay Auction
Number |
Item Description |
Total Bids |
Length of
Auction in Days |
Percentage Score
of First Bid (day of first bid/days in auction) |
Percentage Score
of Last Bid (day of last bid/days in auction) |
|
2572225170 |
Silver Plated Pro Trumpet |
27 |
7 |
100% |
100% |
|
2574014169 |
|
7 |
7 |
100% |
100% |
|
3059059999 |
Apple 20 GB iPod |
24 |
7 |
100% |
100% |
|
3058266963 |
Sony DVD Home Theater System |
29 |
7 |
85.71% |
85.71% |
|
2765238785 |
Eli Manning Signed Helmet |
14 |
7 |
100% |
100% |
|
3568262466 |
Book: The Stranger by Camus |
6 |
7 |
85.71% |
85.71% |
|
2203174100 |
Vintage X-Mas
Tree Color Wheel |
14 |
5 |
80% |
80% |
|
3363515347 |
“Beaches” DVD (w/Bette Midler) |
23 |
5 |
100% |
100% |
|
2360173880 |
Dark Walnut 4-Shelf Bookcase |
9 |
3 |
100% |
100% |
|
3440382284 |
Dell 3-in-one A940 Printer |
6 |
7 |
100% |
100% |
|
Mean Percentage Scores: First day bids: 28.76% Last day bids: 95.14% |
|||||
This table includes
the auction number as reported by ebay.com, the item description, the total number of bids in the auction, the length of the
auctions in days, and the percentage scores. The percentage score for the
last bid is found by dividing the day that the last bid was placed by the total
number of days in the auction. The percentage score for the first bid is found
by dividing the day that the first bid was placed by the total number of days
in the auction.
From the table it can
also be found that the majority of first bids were placed on the first day,
however a few did not start until at least a third of the auction time had
passed. The mean percentage score for
the first day bids is 28.76%. This score
would be lower, but the last item examined on the table seems to have its first
bid placed 71.43% into the auction. This
is an interesting observation because there were six total bids,
however, none of the bidders started bidding on the printer until a majority of
the auction time had passed.
As found on the table,
it can be seen that the majority of the auctions ended with the last bid on the
last day. The mean percentage score for
the last day bids is 95.14%. It can be seen
that there were three auctions that ended with the last bids being on the next
to the last day. This finding is
interesting because it seems that the bidders’ values on these three auctions
were reached only 85.71% through two of the auctions and 80% through the other
of the three auctions.
Optimal strategies for
bidding in an auction such as eBay can be found by doing analyses such as
these. By discovering when the bids were
placed can be very helpful in finding the strategy that will help reduce the
winners’ final costs in all auctions.
Please note: The table
found on this site was created from data found on 
.
The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly
those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or
approved by eBay or the