that the seller is probably trying tohttp://www.ukthesis.org/Essay_Writing/ get them to bid against each other. So they agree to make a lowball offer on the stereo and not increase their bids by more than a few dollars. They hope that if they try to hold the price down but offer to pay cash on the spot, they can get the seller to get rid of the stereo now. We now have three different variations on a three-party negotiation. The first case resembles the typical agency relationship situation we described Chapter 8. One buyer is representing the other, and we have two negotiations going on: one between the buyer and the seller, and one between the buyer and her roommate. In the second case, the seller is conducting a sequenced series of one-on-one transactions; he gets one to bid, then goes to the other with the bid and asks her to raise it; thus, he is using each potential buyer as his Alternative while he tries to get them to compete in an auc- tion. The seller's success in this case relies heavily on the buyers' unwillingness or in- ability to communicate with each other. In the third case, the seller is about to be un- wittingly compromised by the buyers. Their discovery of the seller's intent to get them to compete has created the motivation and the opportunity for them to coalesce in order to both hold the price down and punish the seller for his efforts at trying to struc- ture the deal as an auction. If the buyers are successful, they may be able to get the stereo at a bargain price.
In the next section, we explore this third situation-what |
