Can a big-ticket item like a Rembrandt be sold on the web profitably?

[mandy]

Research paper from Stanford University:

EBay has set the standard for online auctioning, proving that people are willing to buy just about anything over the internet. But the tonier auction houses have been skittish: Can a big-ticket item like a Rembrandt be sold on the web, and can it be sold more profitably than in a live auction? The answer, says John McMillan, is maybe.

Studying high-level auctions, McMillan has observed that it’s not so much the cost of the thing that determines whether it can be sold successfully online, but rather the degree to which bidders differ in estimating its true value. Items for which valuations are all over the map are bid on more cautiously and therefore typically sell for a lower price in online auctions, while goods that people are pretty sure are worth their salt drive up bidding competition and attract higher prices online. The trick for auctioneers, research suggests, is to find ways to reassure bidders about the true value of online goods so as to spur them to duke it out more competitively...

full article: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/researc...ions.shtml