Originally Posted by
goamules
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.
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