Dynamics of online auctions

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Online auctions play an important and integral part in modern business. From mainly having been perceived as online flea-markets for the consumer-to-consumer market, they are today used by many well-established firms in the business-to-consumer markets. For instance, companies represented on eBay.com include Sears, IBM, Fujitsu and Dell. Companies and organizations that host their own auctions include Dell, Major League Baseball, shopNBC and Comet. One common use of online auctions is as alternative salvage channels. For example, both Dell and Fujitsu use their online auction channel to sell refurbished products from returned and remaining inventory. The first part of this research project is to propose models and derive results that will help companies in deciding how to release items for online auction in order to maximize profit.