Ken Steiglitz’s new book on eBay, just published by Princeton University Press, is catching a lot of attention. Mark Buchanan, writing in the current issue of New Scientist, calls Snipers, Shills & Sharks: eBay and Human Behavior “a remarkable achievement” and describes it as “a short, readable account of the economic theory of auctions that doesn’t pound the reader into stupefaction with equations or some of the other dry-as-bones notions [that] economists often invoke.”
“The book does a lot more than just explain why eBay works the way it does, however,” continues Buchanan. “As promised in the subtitle, Steiglitz also explores the quirks of human behaviour in auctions, both on eBay and elsewhere, which have as much to do with psychology as with brute economic logic.”
Franz Dill, writing in The Eponymous Pickle, also gives Steiglitz a nice mention as does blogger Michael Giberson, who describes Snipers, Shills & Sharks as “the best-written introduction to auction theory I’ve seen.”
Steiglitz tells EQN that he wrote the book both for computer science experts and for nontechnical eBay enthusiasts (note to anyone allergic to algorithms: all the math has been relegated to the back of the book). Find out more about Steiglitz and his passion for collecting coins in this fascinating profile.
