New auction mechanism boosts seller profit by up to 6 times!
The article explores how a seller can make the most profit when selling multiple items to a buyer, even when the seller's production costs are private information. The researchers found a simple mechanism that can generate at least 1/11 of the best possible profit when the buyer values items independently. This mechanism can still achieve 6 times the optimal profit when the buyer values items together. This result holds true even if the seller's costs are related across items.