| AmEx launches travel auction website
Credit card giant American Express is launching a travel auction website for cardholders as part of its "My Life, My Card" strategy. The Going Once website launch is being backed by an experiential campaign centred in London created by OgilvyOne. The company is operating the site as a Dutch auction where the price continues to drop until a bid is placed. There will be nine different holiday packages available – one offered each day. The price will then drop every 20 minutes between 4.20pm and midnight. Destinations offered include Hong Kong, Antarctica and the Greek Islands. Cardholders are also given the option of buying a choice of three fixed-priced packages each day. † .
PlayersOnly.com Auctions WSOP Prize Package
In a unique auction starting this week at PlayersOnly.com, a $12,000 World Series prize package could go for a buck or less.
The popular casino, poker and sportsbetting site has begun taking bids in its World Series Low Bid Auction. The bidder making the lowest unique bid on the prize between now and the close of the auction in June will be able to purchase, for the amount of their winning bid, the deluxe travel package which includes airfare, accommodation and entry to the World Series of Poker.
A chance to play in the Big One, thats every poker players dream, said PlayersOnly.com Brand Manager David Anderson. Vegas World Series Talk about the perfect place to unleash the player in you. Itd be great seeing one of our guys at the Final Table.
To win the auction, bidders must make the lowest unique bid, meaning that If they were the only one to bid one penny, theyd get the $12,000 prize for a cent.
The Danger of Charity Auctions
I have a weakness that I'd like to confess. I generally lose my mind at charity auctions. If you're not familiar with charity auctions, they often work as follows. First, there will be a silent auction, in which you make bids by writing your name or a number that represents you on sheets of paper next to items you'd like to bid on. For example, I often bid on sports tickets to get good seats to a particular game. My wife bids on handmade jewelry. The silent auction will end at a certain time---whoever has bid the most wins. It's the eBay model. The second part of the auction is usually a live auction, in which bigger items are auctioned off with a real live auctioneer. If you want to bid on something, you do so, but in this auction the bid goes on until there's only one man or woman standing.
Economist who aided Canada wins top honour
Susan Athey garnered worldwide attention last week when she became the first woman to win one of the economics profession's major prizes. But her academic bona fides were already well established in Canada -- as the professor who helped design lucrative timber auctions that helped take some of the sting out of a long-standing trade dispute with the United States. The 36-year-old Harvard University professor made history on Friday when she won the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, awarded every two years to the United States's most promising economist under the age of 40. "It's pretty incredible," Dr. Athey said yesterday in a telephone interview from her home in Cambridge, Mass., just after she and her husband succeeded in putting their two young children down for an afternoon nap.
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