People asking for reserve price on ebay.

[jcovercash]

So I have some high dollar items up on auction for ebay, been selling cars/jet-skis, 4-wheelers, etc...

And it never fails on EVERY auction a bunch of people ask me what my reserve price is. How do you typically handle this? Do you tell them, or tell them you perfer not to give it out.

Any harm in telling the people who ask? I mean it shouldn't negativly affect my auction them knowing the reserve should it? My reserve on the items isnt fair value though, its slightly below that as its the bottom dolalr that would make me happy....

 

[mb]

No, never.

 

[Ime]

I'd never tell someone my reserve price. It's secret for a reason.

 

[brxndxn]

Reserve prices are stupid, imo. I always just set a minimum price and let the market decide.

 

[Maximus96]

i hate reserve-priced auctions...

 

[chuckywang]

So what if they know the reserve price? I'm just being the devils advocate here. How can it harm the seller?

 

[ryan256]

I never use reserved price when I sell stuff on eBay. Its just something else for eBay to charge you for. I always set the starting bid at the minimum I will accept for the item and then let people bid from there. I almost always get about 20-50 % over my initial price.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: Maximus96
i hate reserve-priced auctions...

They seem to act like another way of encouraging a bid without knowing what your competition is.

At least with a shill bidder,you actually know what the competition is.

I can see it from the seller's perspective; however, just set the starting bid at what you are willing to sell it for and go from there.

 

[lytalbayre]

I look at the reserve price as more of a protection for the seller. That way something doesn't get sold for less than the seller is willing to take. I think setting up a reserve is cheaper than starting your auction out at the minimum you are willing to accept.

I've asked for reserve price before, and about 50% of the time, I get it. It let's me know if I should even bother bidding because sometimes the reserve is much higher than I'm willing to pay for a certain item.

Personally, If I see an item with a bunch of bids and a reserve not met indicator, I stray away, cause I don't want to deal with the hassle of it all.

 

[mrchan]

Tell them. Why wouldn't you? If it's within what they would have bid, they'll bid it. If it's not, they'll know to move on.

 

[MBony]

Unless your product is unique I would just start the bidding at your cost and let the market take it from there.

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: ryan256
I never use reserved price when I sell stuff on eBay. Its just something else for eBay to charge you for. I always set the starting bid at the minimum I will accept for the item and then let people bid from there. I almost always get about 20-50 % over my initial price.

But which is cheaper?

1) Setting initial bid at the minimum price you will accept.

2) Setting initial bid at 1 cent, and the reserve at the minimum price you will accept.

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: chuckywang
So what if they know the reserve price? I'm just being the devils advocate here. How can it harm the seller?

If they know the reserve price and feel it is too high, they will not place a bid at all.

Lets say the reserve price on an item is $1,000 exactly.
The buyer is interested, but is not willing to spend more than $750.
If the buyer knows the reserve, he will not bid because he has no chance of winning.
If the buyer doesn't know, he will place a bid for $750. Once he sees reserve not met, there is a small chance he will keep bidding more to meet the reserve.
If another interested buyer comes along and notices the bidding, he may want to join the competition, and may ultimately feel the need to outbid the others to be on top and meet the reserve.

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: supafly

Originally posted by: chuckywang
So what if they know the reserve price? I'm just being the devils advocate here. How can it harm the seller?

If they know the reserve price and feel it is too high, they will not place a bid at all.

Lets say the reserve price on an item is $1,000 exactly.
The buyer is interested, but is not willing to spend more than $750.
If the buyer knows the reserve, he will not bid because he has no chance of winning.
If the buyer doesn't know, he will place a bid for $750. Once he sees reserve not met, there is a small chance he will keep bidding more to meet the reserve.
If another interested buyer comes along and notices the bidding, he may want to join the competition, and may ultimately feel the need to outbid the others to be on top and meet the reserve.

So your reasons deal with psychology. The thing is, proxy bidding should eliminate your reasoning. Game theory knows nothing about psychology.

 

[aceO07]

If there were a few other auctions with the same item with almost the same current bid, I'd go for the auctions without a reserve price.

 

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: Maximus96
i hate reserve-priced auctions...

QFT. I've done a reserve price and like the OP reasons that he hates being asked never done it again. I did it once and thought "why the hell do it? Just start the auction at my reserve price. I can lower it if need be but atleast I wont be houded by the masses asking me what my reserve is."

Reserve auctions are just dumb and no real reason I can think of to have it.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: funboy42

Originally posted by: Maximus96
i hate reserve-priced auctions...

QFT. I've done a reserve price and like the OP reasons that he hates being asked never done it again. I did it once and thought "why the hell do it? Just start the auction at my reserve price. I can lower it if need be but atleast I wont be houded by the masses asking me what my reserve is."

Reserve auctions are just dumb and no real reason I can think of to have it.

Its to get a bunch of people interested. People tend to watch reserve price auctions and wait to see what happens. So you set the reserve to a price that should be exceeded by the last day. Then everyone that bidded now has the auction in their "my eBay" and everyone watching it knows the reserve has been exceeded. So you have a large group of people all willing to bid on your item.

If you start the item at your reserve there won't be as much initial interest due to the high starting cost.

Reserve auctions do make sense for certain items. For instance, I sold a 2 cars on ebay. You better believe both had reserves on them. Although the reserve was set lower than what I wanted for the vehicles.

 

[kranky]

People I have talked to who sell tons of stuff on ebay say there is no reason not to disclose your reserve price, and even better to just start the auction at your reserve. Their experience is that people do NOT keep bidding to hit the reserve - they move on because it's irritating. It also discourages snipers because they won't know if it's worth the time to try a snipe.

 

[jupiter57]

Originally posted by: brxndxn
Reserve prices are stupid, imo. I always just set a minimum price and let the market decide.

QFT!
Why even set a reserve price?
Just set the minimum bid at the "reserve" price!

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: chuckywang

So your reasons deal with psychology. The thing is, proxy bidding should eliminate your reasoning. Game theory knows nothing about psychology.

People don't use proxy bidding like they should; they WILL watch auctions and bid a lot more than they planned if others are counterbidding. Game theory that doesn't account for psychology is flawed.

 

[Yossarian]

there is no reason not to disclose the reserve price.

 

[Dunbar]

Originally posted by: Yossarian
there is no reason not to disclose the reserve price.

I can think think of one reason why. Say I know the reserve, and I'm willing to pay more than that price. I can snipe it and bid the reserve price, end result being I pay less than I might have.

But I also agree high reserve prices kill action. You want a lot of people bidding against each other. IMO, this results in the highest price for the seller.

 

[Accipiter22]

Originally posted by: chuckywang
So what if they know the reserve price? I'm just being the devils advocate here. How can it harm the seller?

if they win the auction with exactly that price. he loses out on any bidding over the reserve

 

[mugs]

What's the harm in telling people what the reserve is? It won't prevent people from bidding higher. The only possible harm I can see is that people who don't want to spend that much might not bid at all. But you don't want to sell it for less than that anyway.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: mugs
What's the harm in telling people what the reserve is? It won't prevent people from bidding higher. The only possible harm I can see is that people who don't want to spend that much might not bid at all. But you don't want to sell it for less than that anyway.

you underestimate impulse buying.

If someone REALLY wants something, and its selling for $50 over the price he wanted to spend. He might buy it if he's still watching it in the last few minutes. However, a person who hears the reserve price 4 days before it ends and sees its too high will not continue to watch the auction.