Storage Wars
Recently in class we have talked a lot about auctions. We have learned about different types including first price and second price auctions. There are so many different kinds and uses of auctions, like silent auctions where one simply writes down what they are willing to pay and people have the chance to bid higher, there is first price auctions where everyone can bid what they’re willing to pay and the person who bids the most wins and pays that amount, there is second price auction where people bid and whoever bids the highest wins but they only have to pay as much as the second highest bid, and more.
An interesting show on TV now is Storage Wars. This TV show is based on different buyers that walk around an old storage box complex and bid for ownership of all the forgotten items in a certain cell. This show is relevant to class because it is a type of first price auction, however it is not that simple because the buyers only get to look into the storage box shortly and do not know everything that is in it/ how much everything will go for. So the buyers have a estimate their value, what they are going to bid, based on guesses of what might be in the cell and what those things might go for.
Since they have no set value for their bid, what they plan on paying for that box can change, if they hear someone else really wants the box they might assume that they saw something good in it and raise their bid, or they might get into a bidding war and increase their bid to mess with and bother the other buyers.
Link- For more information on Storage Wars:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storage_Wars