AC Dickson: eBay Power Seller

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eBay on Ice
by acdickson

There's a great set of auctions up on eBay right now.

The owners of the Fleet Center, the Boston arena where the once proud Celtics and currently striking Bruins play is up for name grabs. Delaware North Companies is looking for a long term naming partner, but is offering the chance to test drive the naming rights for a day. They've got 13 days up for auction, the winner gets their name on the arena for 24 hours.

This is an exquisite use of eBay. How else would you sell this experience? At Christie's? This is a great publicity opportunity for the Fleet Center, eBay, and the 13 eventual winners. Plus, all the money goes to charity.

Here's a full list of the days they are auction the name for.

February 16th is as of this writing up to $33,000. By far the highest. This is for a day when the Celtics are home playing the Memphis Grizzlies.

February 18th is for a day when Disney on Ice brings the Finding Nemo show to town. Understandably, this is a mere $3,250.

In fact, of the 13 days that are up for auction, only the first is for a Celtics game. 9 are for the Disney on Ice Finding Nemo show, and in fact 4 are for a day when no event is taking place at all.

I'd like to see a few more Celtics game in the mix, and maybe a U2 concernt. But still, AC loves to see eBay used in such a creative way. If you're around to watch these auctions bid, it will be interesting to see if the naming rights to the Finding Nemo days get more expensive or less expensive as the last days end. It's an interesting supply and demand question. If you really want to have the Fleet Center named after your mom, or a new toy you're trying to get kids to buy, do you go after the first Nemo day, hoping to get an early bargain as other bidders bide their time? Do you bid on a middle day hoping that the big spenders already got one and everyone else is waiting to see where prices go? Or do you hold off for one of the last ones and hope there are only 10 bidders willing to go higher than what you're willing to spend and the prices drop off?

To add another wrinkle, 7 auctions pop off in three days, the other 6 two days later. Very smart listing theory on the part of the Fleet Center. Give people who lose out on the first round a chance to step back and reconsider if the publicity isn't worth shelling out a little more than they had planned.

If you're an armchair eBay analyst, which I expect you are, it's worth predicting the bidding trend on these. As a buyer or a seller, it's good to have an understanding of bidding psychology.

What does AC predict? It goes without saying that the Celtics game on the 16th is going to go for a couple hundred thousand.

As for the other 12 days, I predict the first 2 or 3 will go really high, then they'll drop in price steadily as the last auctions of the first round ends (the last few that end soon are for days when nothing is doing at the arena). For the last 6 auctions, I think the first one (Feb. 22) will go pretty high, then they'll drop down until the last 1 or 2 go for as much as the very first 2 or 3. In fact, if I had to bet, I'd say the highest bid for a day outside the Celtics game will be either the second Finding Nemo up for grabs or the very last.

So, if you're reading this and want to win a day, I'd bid on February 25th. That's the sleeper, tucked into the middle of the second day, nuzzled around some non-Disney on Ice days. You might be able to slip into that one for less than 10 grand. We'll see.

Feel free to weigh in with your own predictions. And anytime you find or hear about these kinds of auctions on eBay, please let AC know.

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