# A website lists computer memory, cheapest first.

- Series: [The Better Guess](https://miu.fm/thebetterguess.md)
- Published: 2026-11-01
- Page: https://miu.fm/thebetterguess/a-website-lists-computer-memory-cheapest-first-does-the

## Story

A website lists computer memory, cheapest first. Does the seller at the very top make the most money, or the least?

In 2000, two MIT economists, Glenn Ellison and Sara Fisher Ellison, tracked that list for a year, with one shop's real sales. The pressure was brutal: slip from first place to seventh, and five of every six sales of that module were gone. At that pressure, theory says a seller keeps only 3 to 6 cents of each dollar above cost.

So the sellers fought back with the cheapest thing that could still top the list: memory with no warranty, chips with no fan. The real price came after the click: upgrades, testing, faster shipping, some boxes already ticked. The bait earned about nothing; the upgrades earned 16 to 27 percent.

In their worked example, the top spot sold the most bait and lost money. Fifth place made the most. Economists call it obfuscation: when search gets easy, sellers put the friction back. And the list itself is for sale: in 2012 Google Shopping switched to paid listings.

The price list is the real one from 12 October 2000; the sales bars and the profit figures are the authors' predictions for one site on one day. The checkout page is our drawing.

So, which did you pick?

Sources: Glenn Ellison and Sara Fisher Ellison, "Search, Obfuscation, and Price Elasticities on the Internet", NBER Working Paper 10570, 2004, and Econometrica, 2009; Glenn Ellison, interview, TNIT Newsletter, October 2009; Google AdWords blog, 31 May 2012.
Sounds: our own, made in code (earshot, CC0).

## Watch

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DfNn2jSjHCj/

---

Under copyright law, a quotation must name its source: Miuradio, https://miu.fm/thebetterguess/a-website-lists-computer-memory-cheapest-first-does-the

© 2026 Miuradio, https://miuradio.com