Robert Frommer Wrote:
> 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.
>
I will be interested to see how consumer demand plays out over the course of
a few months. I have several friends who are game developers, and one that
is a marketing director at a game development company. The game developers
personally own (and paid for with their own money) every game console
marketed in the last 10 (or so) years, but they are not planning on shelling
out their own cash for the PS2. No compelling reason to buy, they say.
My marketing director friend stated that, "Playstation took the market from
2D to 3D. Playstation II represents only an incremental improvement. We were
hoping for 4D. Ahem."
Michael Giesbrecht (who only wishes he was an economist.)
QA Test Engineer
IT Operations Software Engineering
Lucasfilm Ltd.
> ----- 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/>
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
