How buyers determine your Reserve amount on Ebay

[DonJ]

For anyone who sells on Ebay, have you ever wondered why when you have a reserve, and lots of bidders, it seems they all know exactly where the reserve is? When I sell items that are fairly pricey, the bidding starts at $1, has lots of activity up to about $150, then settles down for the week. Towards the end of the auction, some anxious people start bidding again. Then, with seconds to spare, one or two suddenly bid....perfectly....just at my reserve. For example, if I have a $500 reserve, it will get won at $500 or $503. Never much higher.

Of course, if I set the reserve low, it would sell higher than the reserve. But I usually set the reserve at "the going rate" for that lens or camera. I get a lot of people fishing early on, thinking they're going to get that Dallmeyer Petzval 3B for $199 or Leica Summicron for $47. Why not just set the bid starting at $200 or whatever? Because ebay charges you more, the higher your starting bid is set.

Anyway, I think I figured out how people determine the reserve. Note the guy below, fishing twice to see if he can meet reserve. Then he Retract's his bid. If he guesses too high with his bid, he'll just retract it again, and come back later to bid right on the money. He's gaming the system, and Ebay doesn't care. Also it's typical that he's in a country I do not ship to for this item. It's in my description, and it's set via the Ebay system. Yet, there he is, getting ready to screw up my auction, if I don't cancel his bid. Of course, he'll throw one in the last 6 seconds, and blow away the good buyer that was about to win. Then I have to cancel his win somehow, talking to Ebay, which requires I wait 7 days to see if he will "agree to cancel", before they will force the cancel. Weeks later I get a refund for my trouble, and get to relist the lens. This is why I hate the global market - there are no global ethics.

I understand you've been selling on eBay for nearly two decades, but your comments are real head-scratchers:

1) If your reserve is $500, and only one person bids higher than that, they will win for exactly $500 no matter how high their bid was. So aside from the people retracting their bids, I don't see the problem.

2) eBay hasn't charged a listing fee based on starting price for many years, at least on the USA site. You can list an item for 99 cents or $500 starting bid, and it won't cost you more than 30 cents. They even give you 50 with no listing fee each month.

3) If your bidder is from a country you don't ship to, you either don't have your blocks set properly (there are two settings; many people miss the second one), or they have an address in a country you do ship to.

4) If you don't want that person to win, and you're concerned they'll bid again after you cancel their first one, why don't you put them on your blocked bidder list?

5) If you won't sell that Pinkham for less than $5,000, are you really willing to pay eBay $100 for the privilege of setting a reserve price each time you list it with a low starting price? You did know that the reserve fee is 2%, right? You'd really rather do that than start the bidding at $5,000 and pay eBay 30 cents, or maybe $0.00?

[Alan Gales]

Yep, I like Dagor77, but for his long anecdotes about his items. They are works of writing art. No one ever accused me of writing short ads, devoid of hyperbole and romance!

Yeah, I love reading Andrew's auctions. I have bought several books from him but his gorgeous glass is unfortunately out of my price range.

[Alan Gales]

la puta negra deuce

This one. I waste lotsa film on it.

I hope you waste a lot of gas on it too. That is one sweet ride!

[StoneNYC]

Bwahahaha....no, read more carefully grasshopper. Think about what I said on the season, the obscurity of rare items, and more.

Or if you want to try an experiment, take your most cherished lens, put it up for sale right now, during Christmas, with no reserve and .99 cent start, and see how you do! You may discover that the market fluctuates over the weeks, but there is an AVERAGE price on almost all items, even rare ones. You can risk selling during the slumps if you want, with no reserve. You find out at the end how your gamble fared. I didn't gamble, and didn't lose money. I'll sell it for the going rate later. I guarantee.

Dallmeyer 3Bs are selling for about $1800 right now, I'd guess (haven't checked much this year). You'll find a range of prices around there. Then, one will sell for $625, because it was a slow week, or everyone who wanted one had just bought theirs, or there was a big debate on TV and no one noticed ebay. It's hard to predict when the leading toe of the Bell Curve will hit. A reserve protects you from those slumps.

Yes and in that week $625 was the going rate

That's usually when I buy

Good luck!

[Old-N-Feeble]

Me too, Stone... but that's not when I sell unless I'm in a terrible hurt for money. Fortunately, my terrible, painful hurt for money is probably over with. Most of us don't have family we adult men can lean on.

Buyers want to buy low and sellers want to sell high... DUH!! Would you do any different? Historically, no you don't... and won't.

Why should the seller sell something for half price in a slump? To enrich others' vast and very pricey collections?

Oh wait, let me add smileys to cushion my blows...

Oh... and good luck!!

[Rael]

A couple of months ago, I started an auction for a pristine Nikon 150mm enlarging lens at .99 cents, and it went for.... .99 cents. I learned my lesson.

[goamules]

duplicate....

[StoneNYC]

A couple of months ago, I started an auction for a pristine Nikon 150mm enlarging lens at .99 cents, and it went for.... .99 cents. I learned my lesson.

Man wish I had gotten that sale I would have spent $1.03!

[Old-N-Feeble]

Man wish I had gotten that sale I would have spent $1.03!

Smileys to prove I'm such a really wonderful nice guy...

[tonyowen]

After reading the foregoing 69 postings I’d like to add some comments.

1] The eBay fees mentioned (in the thread) infer USA eBay fees are less than in the UK, where the eBay fee is 10% of the final selling price and the PayPal fee is 0.034%+0.20p (circa 30c).

2] Surely a reserve price is the minimum amount the seller wants for the item. Though starting at a price close to that desired seems to make more sense.

3] I’m not certain from the preceding postings whether the references of a winning bid being reduced to the reserve amount (assuming it is the only bid over the reserve) relate to automatic or manual bids. If manual then surely the above-reserve bid is the actual price paid.

4] I was not aware that bids could be withdrawn - surely eBay monitors these actions and can apply penalties to those that abuse the system

5] My grouse is that eBay permits the use of predated and hidden bidding which to my mind prevents fairness in the bidding. Without proof I assume that many of the hidden bids are placed by ‘resellers’ able to absorb an occasional outrageous high bid because over time their total expenditure evens out the outliers.

6] I’ve never placed an item on eBay at £0.99 (US=$0.99). My ‘selling price’ is always just below what I consider to be a reasonable figure. Then, assuming it does not sell, I look at the number of viewings, number of watchers, and either relist at a lower price or withdraw the item.

7] Maybe I’m getting sceptical, but I’m of the opinion that “Buy It Now” can often mean a better deal.

Regards
Tony