I have two ways to calculate the average starting price of an auction item compared to it's actual value.
Starting Value Actual Value Percent -------------- ------------ ------- 1 2 50% 2 3 66% 3 4 75% 4 5 80% 5 6 83% 6 7 86% 7 8 88% 8 9 89% 9 10 90%
My question: which is the average starting price of the items as a percent?
SUM(start_values) / SUM(actual_values)
or
AVG(percent_value)
In this case, the difference is between 85% and 79%, which is sizable.
Which calculation will be most useful way to express the average starting price of all items, expressed as a percentage? We're having some debate here at work on the matter, and would like someone to set the record straight for us.