Tractors on eBay: Differences between internet and in-person auctions

We provide a systematic examination of the differences between Internet and in-person auction prices for used tractors. A hedonic model estimated with transactions pooled between eBay and in-person auctions reveals statistically distinct price surfaces for the two auction venues and predicts significantly lower prices for comparable equipment sold on eBay, though this difference is attenuated for tractors fully covered by eBay’s buyer protection program and is fully absent for the most frequently traded tractor. An endogenous venue selection model reveals that larger, more valuable tractors from states with more valuable stocks of machinery are more likely to be offered on eBay. Key words: auction, eBay, endogenous switching regression, farm equipment, farm machinery, hedo-nic models. Few sounds capture the rhythm of agricultural economies better than the syncopated cadence of an auctioneer echoing across a clutch of farmers gathered around the auction block. This seemingly timeless portrait of economic exchange in rural America has changed, how