Chapter 33

Auctions

Abstract

Auctions are a common way of resolving Personal valuations of items.

Keywords

eBay.com

Craigslist.org

Stock markets

Auction theory

Bidding

English auction

Japanese auction

Dutch auction

Vickrey auction

Buyer's remorse

LIFO

FIFO

We live in the worlds of eBay.com, craigslist.org, stock markets, and bargain shopping via search engines. Yet programmers do not understand how a market works. The first principles of a market are pretty simple.

1. Not everyone values things the same. A lobster dinner looks good to me, but deadly to someone with a shellfish allergy.

2. Personal valuations change over time. I might eat a second lobster dinner immediately after the first one, but a third lobster is too much to eat right ...

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