Question for Ebay sellers

MSD61

Hi Folks,

I have a question for the ebay sellers here...well...more like advice. Have any of you ever had a reserve price on any of your auctions? And if so how did affect it? Myself I have never had a reserve auction until this weekend on a coin I have put up. My feeling is I think it was a mistake. Right now it is a reserve auction with a BIN price and I just feel uncomfortable about having a reserve. However, I don't want to let the coin go for less that what I paid into for buying the coin then having it graded. I don't know...what do you think about reserve auctions?
Geesh I sound like some wet behind the ears kid

Micheál

cosmicdebris

I have found starting a .01 and praying gets more bids. A reserve is much safer but usually gets lets bids. Don't forget most items worth anything are usually decided in the last minute.

silvereaglecoins

I agree with Bill... Low starting price and no reserve will attract lots of bidders. However, there are times when I list unique or expensive items that I can't afford to let go for a song. In that case, I set the reserve price to cover my cost and eBay fees so I break even (worse case). High demand items like silver eagle rolls and common date $20 gold pieces (for example) always get bid up to market pricing so a reserve is usually not needed on these items.

0john0

I have found that using a reserve hinders bidding. From a buyer's standpoint it is an element of the unknown and may cause trepidation that prevents them from bidding. At least that is how I feel when thinking of bidding on an item with a reserve. It gives me the same feeling as when I see a seller charging too much shipping, it sets off alarms that the seller may be too greedy, which always ends in trouble.
-john

MSD61

Well, I took off the reserve because I just felt too uncomfortable. I feel like John does. I myself will not bid on a reserve auction and I shouldn't have made others do what I wouldn't. Now we shall let fate take over
Thank you all.

Lloyd

The thing that stops me using reserves at the moment is the very high cost. Ebay lifted the price to theft levels about January time.

I feel that some sellers are ashamed of the price they want for an item so hide it. When the reserve is met all that shame drifts away because someone is prepared to pay the price .... so it must be fair.

I'm not ashamed, watch this: WYBRIT, I'VE ANOTHER CALM SEA, BU FULL LUSTRE - AT £38 IF YOU WANT IT.

At the moment I've a truck load of coins on 'buy it now' just as an experiment. But generally I use two methods.
(1) Start the coin at a price I want for it. I've noticed that internet bidders are less sophisticated when it comes to coin anyalysis and variety collecting so this is the reason I use this method. You all may disagree but I've got the knocks to prove it.

(2) My other method is to start 99p no reserve. Some coins allow you to do this, especially very popular collector coins such as the better pennies and crowns. Also coins where you have had a good bargain.

I find that this gives everyone a chance. I don't like sellers who only do one thing. There's an example on Ebay of a seller who does this - he's a fantastic guy but he's too scared of losing small amounts of money. Consequently he really struggles for bids and some weeks go by where he will list 10 coins and not sell a single one. The user id is pc coins. I've broken the name up to stop it being found in a search. The trouble is he never gives his buyers a chance!!! They are conditioned to seeing his auction and thinking automatically that they are going to pay the 'real' price for a coin.

I recently bought about 12 or 15 coins from an online seller and listed them all at 99p. Some results:

1730 Farthing double struck sold for £3.20 cost me £20
1696 Shilling low grade ex rare variety sold for £23 cost me £85
1927 Proof set broken up sold for £503 (just sold the case) cost me £270
1757 Halfpenny counterfeit sold for £337 cost me £20
1775 Halfpenny counterfeit sold for £130 cost me £18
1905 Halfcrown sold for £155 cost me £175
There were others counterfeit farthings which generally made a small profit.

All went off at 99p. The variations were amazing. The thing is the losers would have killed the seller named above. That's all he would be able to think about. He would never have achieved that revenue from those coins because he would have precluded a lot of interest with high starts. That halfcrown would have had to start at £200 for me to start thinking about making a profit. But just this once, let's give everyone a chance. The guy who bought it told me he added my auctions to his "favourites" --- and he spends a few quid. I look at it like bookmaking - you don't win on every race but you make a healthy profit at the end of the meeting. I knew I was going to do this as soon as I bought the coins.

Buyers who have had an obvious bargain ALWAYS come back. Just like the majority of gamblers.

One thing that stops me using the 99p sometimes are my pictures - we all think we're clever enough to look past this but it's a real hindrance, believe me. I bought a 1771 farthing from bidkid9 the other day graded GEF. The coin looked grey in the picture. Actually it's an EF with a superb chocolate colour. He would have had more bids with a good picture (fact not opinion).

One tip comes to mind: when selling low value coins never, ever start at 1 cent or 1 pence. Always go around 99p or $1. It takes to long to get from 1p to 99p and the type of bidder who is usually interested in the coin will love to bid in pennies.

To sum up, the reserve function has lost all of it's attraction to me. I also find that the biggest loser of all is a combination of reserve and buy-it-now. That's experience writing.

One other ploy that has worked on the odd occassion is to start the coin at a ridiculously high price. The number of times you'll get that one killer bid is amazing.

L

wjd283

I hav'ent had any luck with reserves.Nowadays I just start the auction at my minimum price,or if I think it'll easily go over my minimum price I'll start it at face.Get more bids that way.

danglen

I run between 300 and 400 auctions a week, and I have found from experience what works for me. If I KNOW an item is going to generate a lot of interest, I start it at 99 cents with No Reserve. If I don't know whether an item is going to generate a lot of interest, I start it at the price I want to get for it. In any given week, I have anywhere from 5 to 25 items that I have started at 99 cents with No Reserve, and even though I might take a hit on one or two, the overall amount i get for all the items more than makes up for an occasional shortfall. I also find that a lot of people that come to bid on the 99 centers, wind up buying some of my other coins . By the way, I NEVER use reserves. I won't bid on a Reserve auction, so I wouldn't expect anyone else to bid on mine if I had a reserve.

wallstreetman

Makes no sense to say you wont bid on a reserve auction, just email the seller and find out what the reserve is!

coachleonard

I used to put reserves on a few of my coins and it turned out ok. NO MORE!!!!! I recently put out two scarcer coins with reserves (reserve at below $10 no less!) and put the starting bid at .01. The 1600's french silver coin ended at one bidder at .01, the 9th Century A.D England Anglo-Saxon sceat ended at 55 cents! That tells me all I need to know about putting a reserve on nowdays. Of course if you start the bidding "at the lowest price you'll accept" you won't get any bids either--- not unless that lowest price you'll accept is $1 or less. You pretty much HAVE to start at $1 or less with no reserve and leave yourself open to getting burned. That's the most consistent way to get bidding going and have your coin end up at a decent price. But now, more than ever, you can REALLY get burned.

wybrit

Nice thread. I have had a lot of similar experiences as already mentioned.

Reserves are definitely getting too expensive. Having a BIN with a reserve is a complete waste because the perception is that the reserve is the BIN, so why not just make it a BIN?

Aethelred

I do very well starting things off at one cent with no reserve.

0john0

just email the seller and find out what the reserve is!

Interesting. It seems so simple. Does that actually work?
I feel like if I were the seller I would reply "bid and find out."

wybrit

Interesting. It seems so simple. Does that actually work?

Usually not. Some sellers even say in their listing "don't email me to ask what the reserve is."

Lloyd

What danglen said about items that generate interest is a good point. I have a fair few NON - British coins and I would never ever start the better ones off at 99p no reserve. There just wouldn't be the bidders to take them anywhere near a break even. They all go off at a profit start with no reserve.

Good examples are French coins in higher grades. Say for instance something costs £30 and you put it up at £42 or £48 depending on the pic and the book value. If it's good enough it will sell 9 times out of 10. If you let that coin go at 99p you would be lucky to get £20 for it. There are not enough potential bidders available.

Every coin or group of coins should be treated differently.

We are also at a pretty weird junction in the coin market here. I know that the vast majority of forum members (and Ebayers) are not familiar with current UK coin fairs. Whilst you know about the latest Spink catalogue prices you do not know how much coins are really costing. I'm reduced to selling a lot of Edward VII and George V bronze in GEF and AU. Only a year ago I was telling clients that they should only collect in UNC Lustre! In fact, the majority of the last lot of bronze I purchased is sitting in the cupboard. I'm reluctant to sell. This stuff would go on at a hell of a price. There is no way that I could start it at 99p. It would have to start at a profit otherwise I'd rather keep it and just create one huge collection. Start selling Art or something. That's an idea.... bye

L

Lloyd

Also from a buying point of view, it makes no difference to me whether a coin has a reserve or not. A single bid of a predetermined value would hit the auction in the last few seconds. If it's not high enough for the reserve then then then,

well nobody's died have they?

L