Tag: auctions

Futurama — A Can of Old Fish

The gang heads to get some pizza and Fry wants his friends to experience anchovies, a type of small, salted fish. It turns out that these small fish were overfished and the population collapsed. Zoidberg even mentions how sorry he was that his people kept consuming them because they didn’t realize they were a common resource, subject to the tragedy of the commons.

Fry is incredibly rich, and wishes he could bring them back. He at first notes that even incredibly wealthy people aren’t able to purchase everything. At an auction, he finds that there is exactly one can left in the known universe and decides to bid all of his money for the “can of old fish”

While we normally wouldn’t pass judgement on someone’s preferences, it’s hard not to believe that this could a good example of a winner’s curse. Fry’s willingness to pay for the can of fish may not be $50 million, but the utility from winning the auction could be worth that.

Thanks to Jessica Pritchard for the clip suggestion!

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Futurama — Fishful of Dollars

We can see economic concepts throughout the episode when Fish learns that he is rich because of a small savings account he opened 1000 years ago. Thanks to interest rates, his money has grown to billions. When Fish and his friends try to order a pizza, he finds out that anchovies no longer exist because of overfishing when humans arrived on the planet. Zoidberg notes that his people killed the anchovies because they always believed one more wouldn’t have an impact.

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One Tree Hill — Boy Toy Auction

The Boy Toy auction gets a little heated as the ladies of One Tree Hill are down to the final boy, Nathan. The auction values start to get high, but they are intent on not letting the other ladies get Nathan. They work together to get the bid up to a point where no one else can participate.

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Parks & Rec: Market Power

 

I was watching Parks & Rec with a friend one night and came across this great clip that showed market power of monopolies. Ron & Co. originally reserved 22 white vans from the local rental company for Leslie’s campaign. Right before voting day, the rental agency opted to rent the vans to someone else. A negotiation ensues.

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