Even on eBay it Pays to Buy in Volume: An Imitation of a Controlled Experiment

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-15-2014

Abstract

In this study, we replicate a controlled experiment setting by following a single established seller with a standardized method of listing items on eBay to investigate the effect that the quantity of items in a listing has on the bidder’s willingness to pay as captured by the realized auction price. The investigation focuses on a “commodity” like item, namely, a silver dollar coin in identical condition. Our results demonstrate that the per-item price in multi-item listings is a decreasing and non-linear function of the number of items in the listing. These results are important because they are the first to report on the effect of quantity of items in a listing on realized auction price on eBay.

Journal Title

The BRC Academy Journal of Business

Journal ISSN

2152-8721

Volume

4

Issue

1

First Page

27

Last Page

37

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.15239/j.brcacadjb.2014.04.01.ja02

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