Ebay'r question?

[jamautosound]

Some guy just emailed me "If you don't mind me asking, what is your 'Reserve Price'?"

😕

Isn't that what 'Reserve' is for? My lowest asking price?


I was going to say "It's higher than the starting bid, and lower than the buy it now price." 😉

 

[MrCodeDude]

You tell him to bid high enough and he'll find out.

 

[minendo]

Why not just tell him and leave it at that?

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: jamautosound
I was going to say "It's higher than the starting bid, and lower than the buy it now price." 😉

sounds about accurate. I always use the reserve price just to avoid getting screwed... can't say that to a seller, but there's no way I'd take the chance of a $200 computer case getting sold for $20 because e-bay was having a slow week.

 

[jamautosound]

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude
You tell him to bid high enough and he'll find out.

Heh. Maybe I should say " If you don't mind me asking, what is your highest bid going to be?" 😀

Originally posted by: minendo
Why not just tell him and leave it at that?

What fun is that?

 

[Rumpltzer]

I guess I don't understand the reserve pricing. I usually write up a good description of what I've got and the terms of payment/shipping, I offer fair shipping prices, and I start the bids really low.

My stuff often goes for more than what I see others getting (although they may just be collecting more for shipping). My feeling is that prices on Ebay find their natural place because of the competition. Starting at a low price gets me more bids. I've noticed that people are more likely to bid on a $50 item that started at $9 and has 10 bids on it already than something with a starting price of $50.

Why do you use a reserve price? Is it just insurance to make sure you get what you want? Do you not believe in the "everything finds its natural price with competition" idea?

 

[Crazymofo]

I never use a reserve and I start all my auctions at $1 or $5 always seems to workout...

 

[jamautosound]

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer
I guess I don't understand the reserve pricing.

Why do you use a reserve price? Is it just insurance to make sure you get what you want? Do you not believe in the "everything finds its natural price with competition" idea?

Originally posted by: Crazymofo
I never use a reserve and I start all my auctions at $1 or $5 always seems to workout...

I used the reserve because I want to get at least what I put into it. It's a little over $400 item.


Thanks all for the replies.

BTW, the guy said his max bid would probably be around $250. :roll:

 

[CanOWorms]

i've never put a reserve on any of my auctions and i've put up thousands of them... i don't think any of them have gone very low either - I've almost always at least made my money back. I notice a lot of times though that auctions with reserve prices usually tend to not sell as well as non-reserve auctions.

 

[nippyjun]

I also find that a reserve priced auction doesn't do as well as non-reserve auctions. If i'm really worried about not getting enough i'll start at just below the price I want and see what happens. If it doesn't sell then i relist at a lower price.

 

[MBony]

Originally posted by: jamautosound

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer
I guess I don't understand the reserve pricing.

Why do you use a reserve price? Is it just insurance to make sure you get what you want? Do you not believe in the "everything finds its natural price with competition" idea?

Originally posted by: Crazymofo
I never use a reserve and I start all my auctions at $1 or $5 always seems to workout...

I used the reserve because I want to get at least what I put into it. It's a little over $400 item.


Thanks all for the replies.

BTW, the guy said his max bid would probably be around $250. :roll:

You might want to do the math. If you want to sell for $200 I believe its cheaper to open bids @ $200 than to open bids @ $1 w/ reserve of $200. I'm not 100% positive on that, but I rarely use reserve and for that reason.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Whenever I have a reserve on my auction (which is extremely rare), I SAY what the reserve is on the auction! 😀

I usually do it for items that I'm not sure will sell well on eBay.