This article focuses too much on economic theory of auctions generally, and it focuses too much on what buyers prefer.  There are some fundamental flaws to eBay in particular that have doomed auctions, and these flaws affect seller behavior even more than buyer behavior.<p>eBay does nothing to screen buyers.  Therefore there are many bidders who are not serious about buying.  They bid on items, win them, and do not pay.  I have had bidders win my items and then say &quot;I don&#x27;t want to buy this item, sorry.&quot;  As a seller there is no practical recourse against these bidders.<p>This could easily be solved by requiring bidders to put down a deposit.  They could be required to post their entire bid amount, but even requiring some deposit--10%, or 50%--of the bid amount would cut down on people bidding who have no intention to buy.  If you win the item but don&#x27;t pay, you would forfeit the deposit.<p>As it is, a bidder wins the auction and does not pay, and as a practical matter the seller must re-list the item.  This is a hassle, and time is lost.<p>Sniping is another problem that is easily solved.  Simply make the auction more like a live auction: each bid extends the auction time by a time period (a few minutes, a few hours, whatever) to allow additional bids.  You set a reasonable bid increment so that this does not become a massive waste of time.  eBay has not done this either.<p>As a result the auction winds up being a time sink for sellers and buyers alike, with doubtful value for price discovery.  It does nothing for price discovery if some fool bids $200 for something that is worth only $150, especially when the fool is just jacking around and has no intention on paying.  I will never again auction on eBay.  If I have something whose value I don&#x27;t know and I really want to practice price discovery, I would just post it at a high &quot;Buy It Now&quot; price, with a note in the listing stating that I will lower the price periodically until someone buys.  But even that is a lot of trouble.  eBay is just too much hassle, and the auctions are even more hassle with no benefit.  It&#x27;s no wonder sellers are jumping to platforms like Amazon, especially for commodity items with obvious prices.