AN EBAY QUESTION......RESERVES..........

[birdinflight]

I had an email from a prospective bidder yesterday asking me to reveal the reserve on an auction. I said sorry, no..........politely with explanation.

There were also already two bidders on it and I personally would be pretty pissed off if someone did that to me.

I received a reply from the guy which was to say the least confrontational. He said it was and I quote............."thats a little silly isn't it if people dont know your reserve and no one else bids it up you dont sell it
you should allow people to know it then they can put a proxy on it to get it up to that if that doesnt happen you end up having to pay fee's again to put it back on..a reserve isn't this secret thing that no one should know its a price you wont sell less than..
never mind maybe next time you put it on i'll ask again"

I responded that he didn't have to bid, and if he really wanted the item he would bid anyway and find the reserve which was very reasonable.

Meanwhile he has already bid and reached the reserve price.

I decided then that I did not want him as a bidder, so removed him and blocked him. Cut my nose of to spite my face maybe, but I really don't want business from folk like that.

Isn't a reserve meant to be hidden, isn't it in normal auctions???

SO
my question is to all you seller and buyers out there.

WOULD YOU REVEAL YOUR RESERVE, STATE IT ON THE AUCTION OR EXPECT A SELLER TO DO SO?????

 

[tootyfluti]

Personally

I never reveal my reserve. I f people want to bid then fine and half the fun is bidding to try and find out what the reserve is. The whole point of an auction is to get the highest price you can and if you give out your reserve people will probably offer you that and try to get you to end the auction early.
I wouldnT ask a seller to give me their reserve. If they wanted a set price I would expect to see it as Buy it Now. This bloke seems to be a pratt and would probably muck you around with payment so I don`t blame you for blocking him!

 

[Samster]

Dunno about eBay Alison, but every other 'real' auction I've attended the reserves have always been public prior to the auction taking place.........

 

[Supabird1100]

The reserve is the minimum you will accept for the item. I've asked sellers in the past to reveal it as I see no point in watching an auction for 10 days if the price they want is more than I'm prepared to pay.

If the item makes the reserve then the seller is happy.....it got to the price they wanted for it. If it goes over the price, due to added interest, then the seller is twice as chuffed !!!!!

 

[Centaur]

Good on you Alison

I completely agree with you I would not reveal the reserve as all bidding would creep after that point. At a public auction the auctioneer, not the seller, reveals the the reserve because to them a pencentage of anything is better than nothing.

 

[Supabird1100]

Yes...But Centaur.......because an item reaches it's reserve it doesn't mean all bidding is going to stop. If enough people are interested in the item it could go way above what the seller was expecting. I've watched items in the past that, as soon as the reserve is met, the bidding goes sky-high because now peeps know what the asking price was and they are prepared to pay more.

In an auction house, the seller tells the auctioneer what the minimum price they will accept is, and the auctioneer reveals it.......same as Ebay.....once that price is met.

 

[AV8TOR]

Had the same question to a few sellers & simply explained, I was serious about their item, what was the reserve as I would make this my starting bid QED the item will sell to me or higher bidder. If the reserve was listed it gets rid of the time wasters!!!!!

Just my thoughts dont mean i'm right

 

[Supabird1100]

If the reserve was listed it gets rid of the time wasters!!!!!

My thoughts exactly, Av8tor. What is the point of 20 bids on an item if the reserve isn't met??.......it won't sell !!!!!!

So some clown keeps bidding on your item just to see what the reserve is set at.....he makes a load of bids......meets the reserve.....then decides it more than he wants to pay. Here we go with the 'non-paying bidder' process.

Believe me, it happens......I've had it !!!!!!! :bang:

 

[dpbxx]

Reserves

I'm with Av8 also. Don't understand why sellers want to keep their reserved prices secret. If I want to buy summat let me know the reserve and I can decide if I want to pay that much or more for the item. If I do, we all then have a start point.

I'm all for reserve prices but sellers should consider why they are keeping them secret. :dunno:

I think the answer is to decide a reserve then make that the starting price.

 

[Phoenix]

revealing reserves is a matter of opinion, if the reserve is high then it may put off interrest.

The psychology of not revealing a reserve is to get peoples interest whilst the auction appears cheap, then, the more people who are interested, the higher the selling price will be.

Revealing your reserve could also hand an advantage to a last minute poacher, ie he will keep an eye on the auction, and if its below the reserve he will put in a last minute reserve bid.

Im not sure how reserve bidding works with proxy bidding on ebay, ie if someone puts in a higher than reserve proxy bid, yet, the final price remains below reserve then does the price automatically jump above the reserve???

 

[Supabird1100]

The proxy will keep bidding up each time you are outbid. If at the last second of the auction the reserve is not met, but your proxy bid is above the reserve, it will bid just enough to meet that reserve.

 

[dpbxx]

'Revealing your reserve could also hand an advantage to a last minute poacher, ie he will keep an eye on the auction, and if its below the reserve he will put in a last minute reserve bid'.

Then you sell the item. Is that a bad thing??

 

[gypsy]

auction

With working silly hours i cant always be at the computer to bid so i contact the seller to see if they have a "but it now " price in mind and if i'm prepared to pay that price i will buy it instantly .
I dont force them to sell it to me but on most occasions its worked out better for both of us , so were not having to waste time checking out bids and answering the silly questions you sometimes get

 

[birdinflight]

interesting view points on this.......

at the end of the day its up to the seller, but there are advantages and disadvantages.

The only way of making it totally fair is to state the reserve with in the auction listing for all to see.

I may try that on my future listings and see what happens.