Empirical Observations of Online Auction & Development of a Bundled Buying System

This project report discusses various behavioral observations from three different perspectives with statistical diagrams, composed of collectible auction items among diverse categories at the eBay web site. The large data set consists of over 20,000 auction items, which took place over one month. Based on this data set, I provide descriptive statistical comparison with analytical charts and tables. Several interesting findings were discovered from performing complex and combined evaluation. Meanwhile, in the etailing environment, the prototype, BestBuyAgent, illustrates some limitations and constrains when implementing bundled buying systems for purchasing multiple items within one package. Several issues such as data consistency, shipping cost computation, etc. are raised and Information Technology was discussed to cope with these issues. Keyword User behavior, eCommerce, online auction, agent, eBay, bundled buying, web parsing, web application, data analysis.