Still Going Strong - MEARS December 2010 Auction

[barrysloate]

There is an inefficiency in all these auctions but it's clearly not a priority to fix it. REA, for example, has a closing time for initial bids of 4:00 PM. But everyone knows that ten hours later the auction will still be going strong. So what happens? 75% of the bidders don't even start bidding until ten hours later. To repeat, that is an inefficiency and it would seem logical that most businesses would try to correct it.

I always said that the simple threat of closing early- imagine sending out an email on the last day which states no matter what the auction will close at midnight- would get everyone who procrastinates to start bidding early. You wouldn't even have to close it, you could still let it go into the wee hours if needed. But I bet the auction would be deluged with bids at a much earlier hour.

However, noone seems to care, and nobody is going to change the way they close these things.