AUCTION - 8 rolls of new 0.5BTC Casascius Coins - page 3.

2weiX

legendary

Activity: 2072

Merit: 1006

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Quote from: Bogart on April 11, 2013, 08:32:16 AM

The reverse auction idea is neat, but I would like to see any kind of auction be avoided as a primary means of sale for the coins.

Auctions create a premium on the value of the coins based on the time and effort someone needs to put in to participate in and win an auction. They also take time and effort to administer, especially without any auction software to help. I thought the point of changing the sale format was to have Mike put less time and effort into sales.

that's exactly what happens.
the market will find its "own" sweet spot, which I find desirable.

Bogart

legendary

Activity: 966

Merit: 1000

The reverse auction idea is neat, but I would like to see any kind of auction be avoided as a primary means of sale for the coins.

Auctions create a premium on the value of the coins based on the time and effort someone needs to put in to participate in and win an auction. They also take time and effort to administer, especially without any auction software to help. I thought the point of changing the sale format was to have Mike put less time and effort into sales.

rpietila

donator

Activity: 1722

Merit: 1036

+1 for all the above.

I have tried several auction methods, and a reverse ("Dutch") auction is one that works quite well. You implement a website with lots (plural of "a lot") of products for sale and a ticking "buy now" button. The amount in the button decreases steadily. First bid always wins. Payment in 10 minutes. You can time out the products and not need to tell when it happens, so it will increase the excitement. Smooth as a pie.

This will not fetch you the long term highest price, according to the statistics. But I figured out, you don't care about squeezing the last satoshi, just want the market to allocate the coinsn efficiently with less decisions needed from your part.

molecular

donator

Activity: 2772

Merit: 1019

Quote from: molecular on April 08, 2013, 03:21:17 PM

Quote from: casascius on April 08, 2013, 02:49:10 PM

This will only work for products I produce from today forward, but here is an idea you can do right now. The counterfeiting hasn't happened yet. Go throw your current stash of Casascius Coins on a scanner, scan a photo of them, take a 160-bit hash of the file, and then work that hash into the block chain somehow. Convert the hash to a bitcoin address and send a satoshi to it (my Bitcoin Address Utility can do this, for example). Your photo with its supporting hash in the block chain will be publicly verifiable proof that the coin in your photo existed today.

Awesome idea. Thanks for sharing!

I'm trying this and thought I'd show you guys because I'm unsure about some specifics of the process:

Casascius Coins: Am I doing "Proof of Existence" right?

molecular

donator

Activity: 2772

Merit: 1019

Quote from: 2weiX on April 11, 2013, 06:02:08 AM

I have the idea:

REVERSE auction them off on your website.
Price drops 1% every hour or so.

Start each roll at sky-high (face value x 3 or so) and implement a reserve.

Only bulk items (ie rolls).
Each roll listed seperately, shipping may be combined.
You can just throw new items on there and see how they sell.

THAT would be a process I'd like to be part of.

very good! Because it incorporated the very important factor of timing (when you will receive the coins). Someone who needs coins urgently has to pay more.

I like it.

k99

sr. member

Activity: 346

Merit: 255

Manfred Karrer

Clever idea!!!!!!!!!

2weiX

legendary

Activity: 2072

Merit: 1006

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I have the idea:

REVERSE auction them off on your website.
Price drops 1% every hour or so.

Start each roll at sky-high (face value x 3 or so) and implement a reserve.

Only bulk items (ie rolls).
Each roll listed seperately, shipping may be combined.
You can just throw new items on there and see how they sell.

THAT would be a process I'd like to be part of.

dc7d

newbie

Activity: 16

Merit: 0

Quote from: Bogart on April 10, 2013, 09:28:45 PM

Looks like I missed this one. I had at first thought that the end time was fixed, and when I saw that it wasn't I had other things that needed doing, and I couldn't sit in front of the computer for what I thought might be another 4 hours or so.

Maybe someone will resell me some.

Again, I would like to suggest that instead of auctions on the forum, that the coins be sold in the webstore like always, but that the store have a minimum order quantity or value that can be used to ensure that orders are of a wholesale nature, and ease the burden of processing them, which is the point, isn't it? Or maybe I have it wrong...

+1

Otoh

donator

Activity: 3136

Merit: 1167

Quote from: Bogart on April 10, 2013, 09:28:45 PM

Looks like I missed this one. I had at first thought that the end time was fixed, and when I saw that it wasn't I had other things that needed doing, and I couldn't sit in front of the computer for what I thought might be another 4 hours or so.

Maybe someone will resell me some.

Again, I would like to suggest that instead of auctions on the forum, that the coins be sold in the webstore like always, but that the store have a minimum order quantity or value that can be used to ensure that orders are of a wholesale nature, and ease the burden of processing them, which is the point, isn't it? Or maybe I have it wrong...

+1

& Melbustus: +1

Bogart

legendary

Activity: 966

Merit: 1000

Looks like I missed this one. I had at first thought that the end time was fixed, and when I saw that it wasn't I had other things that needed doing, and I couldn't sit in front of the computer for what I thought might be another 4 hours or so.

Maybe someone will resell me some.

Again, I would like to suggest that instead of auctions on the forum, that the coins be sold in the webstore like always, but that the store have a minimum order quantity or value that can be used to ensure that orders are of a wholesale nature, and ease the burden of processing them, which is the point, isn't it? Or maybe I have it wrong...

paulgruber

newbie

Activity: 24

Merit: 0

Mike, I can have one of my coders put together a decent customised auction script if you're interested.

Thanks once again for the opportunity.

Cheers
Paul Gruber

paulgruber

newbie

Activity: 24

Merit: 0

Ripper..

I hope it's all over and I got something

I also say to all the Blokes and Ladies involved, well done. It is a bit of a hard way to go about things. But I'm sure the next round will be a lot more organised with a private auction script to make bidding a bit easier.

Cheers All.

casascius

vip

Activity: 1386

Merit: 1140

The Casascius 1oz 10BTC Silver Round (w/ Gold B)

Sounds like its over! Congrats to all winners.

I am posting from my phone, will review it more thoroughly when sitting at a computer. I am open to changes to the format to improve fairness and efficiency, and will take into serious consideration the suggestions presented here.

slakeco

newbie

Activity: 48

Merit: 0

I reckon we are done.

We are certainly beyond 15 minutes of (my) the last bid for the first time in the auction.

Kudos to everyone who helped make Mike's Casascius auction work.

paulgruber

newbie

Activity: 24

Merit: 0

is it all over?

k99

sr. member

Activity: 346

Merit: 255

Manfred Karrer

YEAH we are done!!!!

slakeco

newbie

Activity: 48

Merit: 0

I bid 34.2 BTC for Rolls #3 & #4.

Based on my understanding of the bidding terms, this format is applicable and currently are valid bids for the two rolls specified.
However, if I have made an error, please excuse me and consider the bid for any 2 rolls instead.

2 Rolls total

Thank you.

+1

k99

sr. member

Activity: 346

Merit: 255

Manfred Karrer

i agree to Melbustus. hope its soon over :-)

1John8Lare

newbie

Activity: 29

Merit: 0

35,9 for any (only one)

Melbustus: +1

Melbustus

legendary

Activity: 1722

Merit: 1004

I bid 40.0 each for any two rolls.

And I'm done bidding.

Mike, with all due respect, I think this auction format is sub-optimal. Obviously it incentivizes sniping, which is fine IFF it's an eBay style auction that will auto-increment against people's max bids, with a fixed end-time. But, since this auction has the 15-minute auction-extension component but no auto-incrementing, now bidders are incented to wait 15 minutes between each bid, and bid only the bid-increment over the last bid, which is just an annoying strategy to execute.

You're actually incenting me to write a little app to auto-post-execute the above strategy for me so I can get on with my day.

As implied, my time has value, which is why I'm throwing 40 up there, even though I may overpay. If the auction had auto-incrementing and a fixed end-time, you should see what happens on eBay, but without the irritating snipe-every-15mins component: everyone would just snipe their true maximum seconds before the end, and that'd be that. Same result for you, but a more time-efficient format for your customers.

I know this auction is effectively an experiment. Just hoping to provide some feedback for the next batch. Thanks again for producing these great coins, and all you've done for bitcoin in general.

Topic: AUCTION - 8 rolls of new 0.5BTC Casascius Coins - page 3. (Read 11734 times)