Dividing Online and Offline: A Case Study
以体育卡交易为案例，研究互联网如何促使买卖双方在线上和线下市场之间进行质量分拣，以及零售店、专业评级和卡片制造等配套行业如何适应新市场。
Every new method of trade offers an opportunity for economic agents to compare its costs and benefits relative to the status quo. Such comparison motivates sorting across market segments and reshapes the whole marketplace. The Internet provides an excellent example: it introduces substantial search cost savings over brick and mortar retail stores but imposes new obstacles for sellers to convey quality. Using sports card trading as a case study, we provide empirical evidence on (1) the sorting of product quality between the online and offline segments, (2) the changes for retail outlets after the Internet came into place, and (3) how supporting industries such as professional grading and card manufacturing adapted to take advantage of the new market. Copyright 2007, Wiley-Blackwell.