Paying Readers Redux

Since I offered to start paying my readers, the emails (to blogonomics@gmail.com) have not exactly been flooding in. This is good for those who asked for high amounts, since I've promised to pay the senders of the five lowest bids whatever they ask for. In fact, I've so far received exactly six emails, which means that only one person's bid is too high, and he asked for $540.17. (Sorry, Sandy – but feel free to try again!)

If Sandy was at one extreme of optimism, another reader was at the other extreme of pessimism:

I want to recieve 1 cent, yes, just one cent, here's the reason: if I am one of the five guys win, then I can get at least one cent, and if I'm not, that means I must bid 0 cent to win, well,don't bother then :)

The highest bidder so far (I won't reveal the amount) did say that he was "aware of the Nash equilibrium in this game", which is more than I am. I will, however, publish a list of all the bids I receive at the end of the week, when I shall also pay the winners. The consensus seems to be that I'll end up having to pay out very little money indeed, but the small number of emails I've received thus far indicates that maybe that won't be the case. We'll see.