I have a one dollar bill. there is a crowd of people around me. I hold it up and say that i will auction the one dollar bill off, and the dollar would go to the highest bidder.
The catch? the first AND second highest bidder both have to pay me whatever they bid. For example, if the bidding stops when someone bids 1.00 and the next person bids .95, then I get 1.95, and the winner gets nothing, the second person loses 95 cents.
What would you do if you were at this auction, and there had to be at least one bid? What is the "winning" strategy, assuming that everyone will want to do what is best for them?
Is that a word?
How about this - create a short term company between yourself and one other bidder. One of you bids a penny, and the other of you bids two pennies. If I were to see a situation like this as a non-bidder, I'd definitely back out as I'sd assume that these two jokers wer e going to run a prolonged bidding war. Of course, the first bidder then does not outbid his partner, and the company ends up making a 0.97 profit, which of course they could share...
collude
