Also, the additional units are not expected to come close to filling demand
at the MSRP. In fact, the price on eBay for these units is expected to rise
in the next few weeks, as families begin to do their Christmas shopping.
----- Original Message -----
From: Eric Crampton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2000 5:38 PM
Subject: Re: Top 10 Economic Puzzles
> Time preference doesn't explain high price variance on
> simultaneously-conducted auctions with identical promised shipping dates.
>
> On Thu, 26 Oct 2000, Ananda Gupta wrote:
>
> > Additionally, Sony has said that they plan to produce 100,000 PS2's per
> > week for every week after the launch week, and ship them with the same
> > MSRP, so clearly these $1000+ bidders are very time sensitive,
irrational,
> > or live outside the U.S. and Japan.
> >
> > Ananda
> >
> > At 04:10 PM 10/26/00 -0400, you wrote:
> > >A quick look on ebay shows basically-identical Playstation 2 units
selling
> > >with high variance in prices. For example, a unit sold at 7:58 this
> > >morning for $960, to which $25 would be added for overnight
> > >delivery. Another unit sold for $1325 at 7:41 this morning with free
> > >overnight delivery. Same unit. Another sold for $315 that morning at
> > >5:44 am. $20 shipping was to be added for that unit.
> > >
> > >Some interesting questions come out of this....
> > >
> > >1) Why didn't Sony just put some kind of special stamp on the first
> > >100,000 units, designating them as "first units" and selling them for
$800
> > >or whatever it figured the market clearing price would be, then selling
> > >subsequent standard units for the $300? Avoiding antitrust action of
some
> > >kind? Protecting consumer loyalty? What?
> > >
> > >2) Why aren't auction participants spending 5 minutes of searching to
save
> > >hundreds of dollars? Search costs are quite low on ebay....
> > >
> > >On Thu, 26 Oct 2000, Chris Auld wrote:
> > >
> > > > And now for something completely different: Playstation 2 was
introduced
> > > > today, with a retail price of $300 and "only" 500,000 units
available.
> > > > They're selling on Ebay for over $1,500. Sure wish I'd pre-ordered
a
> > > > thousand or so....
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Chris Auld (403)220-4098
> > > > Economics, University of Calgary <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > > Calgary, Alberta, Canada
<URL:http://jerry.ss.ucalgary.ca/>
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> >
>
>
>
