Reserve not met....well duh.

Aknot

OK. I bid on an auction that has a reserve of $200. The opening bid is .99. No one else bids on it. I put in a bid for $250. The auction ends with a .99 bid (mine) and no winner. What kind of "stupid" system is that? Even if the seller tells his min bid and no one else bids I still cant reach it. Or can I?

Sorry I think that is the goofiest thing. If you have a reserve set your min bid to that reserve. What is this "hide" the bid? What is the prupose of a reserve bid if you set the initial amount WAY lower then your reserve?

/rant

ldferg

i agree. set the min bid to the reserve. i've also been the high bidder on an auction and it did not reach the min. kind of frustrating.

Knlsportsandmore

It should have proxied to 200.00 since the reserve is 200.00 and your bid was 250.00. At least that is how the reserve auctions used to work. It only stays below the reserve if no bids exceed the reserve.

Aknot

ahhh so if my bid "makes" the reserve it will "open" up?

Thanks.

Griffins

I believe in this particular case the seller pays lower listing fees if they put in a low opening bid. Additionally, from experience I've found that sometimes people are reluctant to be the first bidder, but if you put the opening bid low more bids are generated, and you know how the herd mentality kicks in.
I know this sounds backwards, but it works. Whenever I don't hit the reserve on something I'm bidding on I always send the seller an email immediately following the close, stating "I was the high bidder on your auction, but it didn't meet reserve. My top bid was XXX.XX, can we work something out. 9 times out of 10 we do.

SoFLPhillyFan

I would think that when you bid $250 the proxy should have automatically bid up to the reserve amount or am I wrong on this?

Aknot

I think you are right. As explained earlier. But still why "hide" the reserve then? Why not just let everyone know what the reserve is. While "$50" may not break you if Im that short of a bid and really want the card(s) I would (if known) bid the reserve amount. So now I guess I ask why dont more (some do) advertise their reserve?

WinPitcher

Jim I'm sorta confused, u say u bid 250.00? on an item with a 200.00 reserve? your bid should have reached it and you would have seen reserve met. I know it is frustrating when the opening bid is .99 you bid 100.00 and you see yourself at .99.........however in your scenario your 250.00 bid would have cleared that.

SoFLPhillyFan

Exactly. Don't think we understand why the $250 didn't make it.

MorrellMan

that's right - a bid will only top the last bid by the bidding increment unless there is a reserve, in which case your bid should jump up to the reserve; thus the words "reserve has been met." However, in some auction circles, there is no auction if there are not two bidders - I wasn't aware that this is the case with eBay - anybody ever won an auction by being the single bidder meeting the reserve?

Aknot

No I was just using that as an example as I did not know the way "reserves" worked. I understand now that if the reserve was $200 min bid was .99 and I bid $250 the auction would "open" at $200 with my bid and up me until $250 was surpassed.

Now my question is why "hide" the reserve? Why not let everyone know what it is? That way if the reserve is $250 and I go $200 but no one else bids no one wins. HOWEVER if I know it was going to be "only" $50 more I may have bid the extra on my initial bid.

envoy98

The reserve is higher than $250. If you bid any amount and it's enough to meet the reserve, your bid will be whatever the reserve was. (Bid $500 to see what the real reserve is, and then see the thread on bid retractions)

Only kidding.

WinPitcher

A reserve is the least one will take for a card, the theory is why tell someone what you would settle for? if 2 persons are bidding and both know the reserve one may pull out thereby reducing the amt a seller could get. I will only use a reserve auction when selling if i have alot invested in an item so as to protect my investment.

Aknot

Then why not just make a "minimum" bid? I thought that is what that was for?

WinPitcher

well the reserve acts like a minimum in a way. also some prefer to start auctions low so as to get as many people bidding.

my last auction was a mars attacks checklist that i started at .99 with a 319.00 reserve and a 419.00 buy it now....it topped out at 180.00 i think.i really didnt care if i sold it or not....

Aknot

So do you think it would have been any different if you set the min as your reserve?

(going to bed will respond more 2 morrow)

WinPitcher

lol i have not the slightest idea i was playing anyway

envoy98

Min bid's that are at or near a reserve make people think they aren't getting as good of a deal I think. I never have good luck with high minimum bids. At least with a low min bid people can make a stupid bid that they know won't meet the reserve but it gets it in their "Bidding" list so they can pay attention to it as the end draws nearer. At least that's what I've been known to do. Very rare I see a high min bid go for the same amt as a low min bid w/reserve auction. A lot of times what you'll see if you do a "completed items" search is that the ones that ended at the lower amounts had only 1 or 2 bids and the opening bid was at or near the ending price. This is always true, but I think in most cases it is.