iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Replies

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026

This is darkly hilarious. The whole *point* of an auction is to determine "true market value." That's why neoclassical economists *worship* auctions as the world's best form of "price discovery" and why economics Nobels are awarded for "auction design": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction... 68/

en.wikipedia.org

Auction theory - Wikipedia

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026

The *definition* of "true market value" is "the closing price in an auction." Amazon claiming that it secretly jacked people because the auction generated a price that was "below the true market value" of an ad tells you that the whole business is a sham. 69/

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026

The point of Amazon's payola scheme is only and ever a way to parasitically extract the maximum amount a platform seller is willing to part with, and by running a fake SBSPA, Amazon was able to trick its customers into revealing those maximum prices. 70/

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muxauy @lanzz.org · 04/09/2026

technically (😆), the "true market value" would be how much _anyone_ would be willing to pay. and what they charged _was_ what someone was willing to pay — the top bidder. not that that makes it any less of a scam

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