[quote name='soonersfan60']It's not a market because if true competition were present, I would have been happy with $50 I originally wanted for it. Furthermore, eBay is not a market because of the lack of true competitive bidding--because of BIN, or because of the time limited auction format where snipers can take advantage of the finite end of the auction and not truly have to "compete".[/QUOTE]
I don't even know what to say to this jumbled logic.
No, if information was not present, you would have been happy with the $50. But with information, you yourself became competition at $90. More information means a more efficient marketplace, not less.
This is exactly the same as the guy looking across the street and seeing his competition having a sale on chocolate covered bananas. He can choose to ignore, match, or beat the sale. You saw your competition and decided to beat it. Likewise, someone else could list it at 80...70...etc. But you listed it at $90 and someone bought it. But somehow that's not a market?
So it's not a true market because of BIN or because of auctions? You can't have both.
Based on your logic, what is a true market? Basically, an auction house where there's no time limit and everyone is there? How is that even remotely plausible.
You (and really the whole basis of the OP's argument) are saying that BINs are some sort of collusion tactic that keeps ebay from being a market. Yet, practically all of the world's consumer markets run on BIN (aka an offer price), and you claim because ebay has BIN, it's not a market? How does that make sense?
Ebay would be not a free market if the company ebay set a minimum or maximum price on goods. This does not happen. They let anyone who wants post their wares and set their own prices. That's a free market that is subject to the invisible hand. Now if you want to argue that it's not a perfectly competitive market, that's a different story. But mostly, the argument about NES carts are about BIN auctions being too high. How can you have set prices where the sellers can set any prices they want not be a competitive market?
Also, how in the world do you make an argument about SELLER competition based on the sniper ability of BUYERS?
Again, let me sum this up for you.
1) There are no barriers to entry
2) Every seller on ebay of nes games has his own self interest in mind
3) ebay does not set any minimums or maximums on goods
how is this market not subject to the invisible hand? Just because at any given time there is only a handful of sellers listing their copy of Battle Toads doesn't mean it's an oligopoly. There's no barriers to entry!
I can understand your argument if there was a WidgetX that was all being sold by the same company under 20 different accounts but clearly that isn't the case here. Anyone can decide to sell their old nes/genesis/atari cart and price it however they like.
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By the way, this is just all the crap I learned in econ a decade ago. If someone wants to play Matt Damon to my douchey ponytail guy, I'll be your huckleberry. It'd be pretty funny and the natives would love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymsHLkB8u3s
To be honest, I'd be more like Casey Aflleck in this scene. But some of you people crack me up with your theories.