This is exciting stuff. If you surf over to the Internet Auction List , you can get a good look at what's available to be bought at auction on the Web, and not just in the United States. This is an international phenomenon, too. As Jerry Kaplan pointed out to The Economist, when you shop in a store, you have no idea how many Ralph Lauren shirts there are in the world, and you have no idea who else is shopping for them. Therefore, you can't really know the true value of the shirt.
Auctions do away with much of that uncertainty.
Shirts, computers, cars, and many other items are sold for exactly the price the market will bear. It's an interesting exercise in all-out capitalism and supply and demand.