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Ask HN: (General-purpose) Reverse Auctions — undeveloped or needless?
I've been playing with an idea of reverse auctions a bit — it appears that there isn't much reverse auction systems around — at least nothing that you can compare with even a fraction of forward auctions' market.
Though I am not sure — does that mean nobody's really interested in reverse auctions (neither buyers nor sellers) or is this niche is just undeveloped and will kind of welcome new players?
Of course there is no firm answer, but what do you guys think about it?
P.S. From Wikipedia: "It is a type of auction in which the role of the buyer and seller are reversed, with the primary objective to drive purchase prices downward. In an ordinary auction (also known as a forward auction), buyers compete to obtain a good or service. In a reverse auction, sellers compete to obtain business."
- bigbang 18y agoReverse auction already exists in some form. One thing, that comes to my mind is bidding for contracts. Normally outsourced companies bid lower to increase the chance of getting the contract(but yeah not always the lowest bidder gets the contract).
- crazyirish 18y agoscriptlance and other similar sites are essentially reverse auctions.
- yrashk 18y agothough scriptlance is quite far away from being a general-purpose reverse auction, isn'it? I am not to say that there are NO general-purpose reverse auctions. There are some
- zacharye 18y agoI think the main issue is that the concept of a reverse auction is not practical for the seller in an online environment. In a reverse auction, the seller must work for a sale whereas in a conventional auction the site and the buyers do the work for them. Why should the seller "work" for a sale if (s)he doesn't need to? On the flip side of the coin, it is generally accepted that if a consumer wants to purchase something (s)he must shop for it. So far attempts to revamp this process have not been widely adopted. Ebay tried a reverse auction segment of the site for a while and I don't think it worked out very well. That's not to say it can't be done of course, just that eBay couldn't do it with its approach - and all of its resources.
- yrashk 18y agohm, I haven't realized ebay had this — it might be interesting to know how exactly they did it. While I was playing with this idea, I though that these things might help reverse auction solution: * powerful market research/alert tool for sellers — i.e. sellers would need a powerful toolset to monitor demand on an RA site. * social networks _integration_ and stuff like that — RFQ information shouldn't be locked in a single site — it should be spread to wherever potential sellers might find it. * "ning.com" for auctions
- zacharye 18y agoIt will be an interesting part of your process to learn that eBay's solution is in fact still live. wantitnow.ebay.com I had no idea it was still live. I think that the very existance of this site, and the fact that you've never even heard of it, can play a large (and positive) role in your development process. If you plan to attack this you have your work cut out for you. You also, however, have a great tool in Want it Now - theoretically "what not to do".
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- yrashk 18y agowhoa, eBay still has this feature and there are active listings! :)
- rincewind 18y agoThe german site my-hammer.de does reverse auctions for craftspeople.