Auction Theory, 2nd Edition

Chapter | Twelve

An Introduction to

Multiple-Object

Auctions

In this part of the book we turn to the study of situations in which multiple,

related objects are to be sold. The objects may be physically identical, say

multiple cases of the same wine or treasury bills of the same denomination,

or they may be physically distinct but still be good substitutes, say different

apartments in the same building or different paintings by the same artist, so that

the marginal value of acquiring a second item, say, is lower than the value of the

first. Alternatively, the objects may be complements—that is, the value derived

from a particular object may be greater if another has already been obtained. For

instance, a philatelist may value a collection of stamps more ...