An Updated Look at the Factors Contributing to the Final Selling Price of Auctioned Gift Cards

ABSTRACT

Much has changed in 10 years, and this study follows up on one previously published that employed linear regression on Home Depot gift cards sold on eBay, which utilized the standard auction format as a proxy for a homogeneous good. The previous study looked at data beginning in 2006 and found results indicating that a number of variables associated with the card influenced the percentage of total value obtained for the card. Gift cards are used much more widely today than previously, and eBay has many more fixed price listings than auctions. It is now much more difficult to see variables related to buyers, leave negative feedback, and accept anything but electronic payment. This article looks at a number of the variables examined in the first study and updates the findings using a dataset of Home Depot cards auctioned over a 2-month time period in 2016.

KEYWORDS:

• Auction
• e-commerce
• eBay
• gift cards
• homogeneous good
• winner’s curse

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Barry Ritchey and Jeffrey Buck for their assistance with this article.