This is my first time on ebay. Saw a Stanley plane that looked good so decided to try it. What the heck. The only thing I don't understand is the sellers reserve. Why isn't that the starting bid? Seems like the bidder should know at least the min. starting point. Oh well will learn I suppose. Thanks.
I sold a few items on ebay last year and I found that when I started with an opening bid that was my minimum price the the auctions were sluggish to poor in respeonse.
When I made my minimim price the reserve price and made the starting bid $1 there was much more interest and action.
Why? Beats me, but that's what happened. Anybody else have a different experience of some advice? I want to put a few more items on ebay soon, so some good advice would be appreciated.
Wylie Williams The Speaker and Stereo Store
The cost of the auction to the seller is based in part on the opening bid. So sellers often set low opening bids both to attract bidders and reduce costs. The danger to the seller in that is the auction ending before the price has been bid up to expectations.
In order to protect the seller against the auction ending before a price reasonable to the seller is reached one sets a reserve amount. That's kept hidden to bidders, of course.
Auctions are not necessarily a true reflection of actual market value as an item may end at an artificially low amount due to lack of traffic or lack of interest. That may be a result of a poor choice of title that doesn't get picked up by the ebay search engine, or it may be a poor product description.
- - LRod
Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite
Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999
eBay now whacks you for a percentage of the reserve price up front. This cost is credited to the final value if the item sells, and lost if the item does not, or the auction is ended early.
I guess too many people were selling off-line to a high bidder that didn't meet a reserve.
Barry
The eBay rundown:
Reserve price is seller's "won't sell less than" price. Start the bidding at a low price because this is what attracts people to doing any bidding in the first place, set a reserve price for the minimum you will let the item go for, or as much as you want to sell it for. At the end of the auction if the reserve has not been met, then the seller is not* obligated to sell to the highest bidder. If it has been met, then by contract the seller is* obligated to sell.
If super quality pictures are give for show then people go crazy trying to win. Money comes.
During bidding it is also legal to steal the top bid within the last minute of the auction even if you've never placed a bid on the same before, at that time you can send in a bid that can't be topped and win, but pay that much. It is what eBay calls "automatic bidding". That price will remain until someone else outbids you, and if they under bid you it raises your bid price to anywhere under your top bid.
Lotsa fun!
One evil thing in bidding is that people bid time after time in order to win when it is not a race, all they're doing is raising the price. One only needs to, or even not to bid only once, then battle it out within the last minute.
As an example, I just won this bid for my mother in her own sign in, click on the link that says "21 bids" and you can see how it went:
In order to know what is going on toward the end of the auction you must, that is to say MUST keep on refreshing(MS IE) / reloading(NS) the page.
Good luck next time, Alex
not met. Will the buyer offer it to me at a buy at this price now? I think I read if there is more than one bidder w/o the reserve being met this happens but not sure with only one bidder.
This practice seems ridiculous to me. When it occurs on something I want to bid on, I email the seller and ask what the reserve price is. If they won't say, I don't bid.
Mitch Berkson
before you waste a lot of $ and time(and your mental health) on eBay get the book _Online Auctions @ eBay(3rd edition) by Dennis Prince( about $20)
Larry
Only if they want to ... the new thing of a seller being able to do that while the sale remains under the contract might be in effect, I don't know. But, do some reading on eBay for buyers and sellers. I havn't read-up on it yet.
If they say yes or offer, and it is not* under the contract then that is where to be wary*, if you send your money off into the wild blue yonder, they could rip you off seriously.
Paypal offers theft insurance for it's buyers, I saw it costs .80 cents on one sale I paid for.
If so then only the top bidder, you'd have to ask the seller.
Alex
It really is no big deal for a seller to reveal if they want, especially if they only care about making the money. But another point is, some seller are moral*. And it is unfair to other bidders to reveal. Some sellers simply say what it is right there in the sales text.
Alex
Alex,
OK. It's an auction, not a guessing game. It's not an audition to become the next Amazing Kreskin and, well, the reserve will be revealed anyway when it's met.
Right?
Good.
I have in the past e-mailed a seller to ask what the reserve is and I've gotten the, "it wouldn't be fair to the others", argument as if by my knowing I'd have an advantage over the others?
Hello?
Is this thing on?
It's still an auction. Right?
Good.
Anyways (not a word) I've never understood the "moral" argument. Can anyone es'plain it to me? I mean, if I know what the reserve is and I bid past it, isn't that the whole point/what the seller is wanting me to do?
It's still an auction. Right?
Good, but I'm wondering, why not reveal the reserve?
UA100, who realized a long while ago that with eBay, and any auction for that matter, the only leverage worth a shit is a fat/fatter/fattest wallet...
not on ebay. the seller is allowed to end the item early and many do. some sellers have a "hidden reserve" and will abort a no reserve ebay auction if the bidding doesn't get up there.
I agree. I won't waste my time with a mystery reserve.
It's for sellers who wish to start the bidding low without having to actually sell below a secret price.
Used to entice people to bid. Dubious effectiveness; I generally pass on auctions with a reserve, and I suspect that most would actually fetch a higher price without one.
snipped-for-privacy@FreshCoffee.biz
Another reason is based on possible ways of searching for active auctions; You can sort by current high bid. If you are looking for low cost items, a reserve makes it more likely that you will see the auction.
While I don't much care for it myself, I have noticed that people get caught up in "auction fever" when it looks like there is a competitive bidding war in progress. I have seen stuff languish for days only to be bid way past what they are worth (to me, anyway) within minutes of my own bid...
snipped-for-privacy@FreshCoffee.biz
Moral? Are you kidding? Why is it unfair to reveal the reserve to any bidder who requests it?
Mitch Berkson
People do reserves so they can get some bidding started and still not have to sell at a price below their (secret) minimum. I personally dislike this tactic and ignore reserve auctions as a bidder (I think they betray a certain lack of candor on the part of the seller - although some people actually tell you their reserve in the text of their ad) and never use them as a seller (and I've bought/sold a LOT of stuff on eBay).
After all, what is the point? you get a bunch of people to bid at a level that you will not accept? You will not sell to them anyway. Also, you end up paying the same eBay fee that you would if you had a simple auction, so you save nothing. What I find more effective is to start the auction either at a buck (you get lots of action) or at a level just below what you think you need.
Don't take eBay auctions to personally. Win some, lose some. Last November/December I paid about $175.00 for 7 different planes in 6 different auctions (#3 through #7, a #4 1/2 and a #5 1/2). Got great deals because there were about 12 other auctions I bailed out on when the price went to high and also lost a few bids in the last minute. I also sold my #5 Clifton, which was only 6 months old, for $160.00 to pay for all those gorgeous old Stanleys. The Clifton is about $200 brand new.
From a sellers perspective, the reserve is the minimum price I'm willing to accept for the item. The minimum bid is just a starting point and can be quite arbitrary. You could start at the reserve price, but the high start price might scare off curious bidders. Ultimately, and rightfully, the market for the item is what will determine how much you get or pay for the item regardless of the starting point.
Not bidding on items because you don't know the reserve is ridiculous. Your bidding should always be based upon how much you desire the item and how much you want to pay for it. Set your price, keep your discipline, and don't worry about being out bid. Again, don't take eBay auctions to personally.
My .02...
kevinb
How exactly is that unfair? Anyone who is willing to give it away will probably give it to anyone.
I prefer to list reserves right in the text, as the "How much is the reserve?" email gets to be a pain.
I don't understand why a reserve needs to be a secret. If the item is worth more than the reserve, the free market will carry it higher. If the reserve is unrealistic, it won't be met.
A good bidder's bottom line is this, if you bid what the item is worth, and the reserve isn't met, walk away. If the reserve is met while you think the item is still a decent value, stay! This is regardless of if the reserve is public, provided via email, or secret.
People who think of auctions as games, doing no research on the true value of an item, deserve to pay too much. Hey, they set the selling price!
Barry
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