eBay - Reserve Price vs Starting Bid

Comments

• coinpage Posts: 342

  November 27, 2005 7:55AM

  Another idea: Have a reserve price of $50 and disclose that in the auction text. This encourages serious bidders to put in a bid and keep track of the auction.
  

  Mike Bottos
  coinpage.com
  

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• coachleonard Posts: 995 ✭

  November 27, 2005 8:17AM

  Ebay can be a scary catch-22: a $50 starting bid scares off all the bidders. A reserve auction scares off all the bidders. A $1 may well attract bidders--- but you better hope they're not the type that bow out when the bidding gets to $1.25. The best way to be safe and get the roughly $50 value you want for the coin is to have bidding start at $50 with no reserve, but unfortunately you'll usually get last-second bidders, thus your final hammer down price will be $50 or maybe a little over. Some folks really believe in the philosopy of throwing caution to the wind and 'trust the market'-- so they start bidding at 99 cents, no reserve, and trust the bidders to bid the coin up to its true value. All I can say is-- that's a great way to get good final bids. And its also a good way to give away a treasure for nothing

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• relayer Posts: 10,570 ✭

  November 27, 2005 8:19AM

  
  There is a line between $49.99 and $50, but using $49.99
  
  Open at $49.99 = $1.20
  Open at .01 with $49.99 reserve = $1.25 BUT $1.00 will be refunded if it sells, so the net is $0.25
  
  (For $50-$199 it's $2.40 vs. $2.25 with a $2.00 refund)
  
  Also with a Reserve you can add a BIN price that will be protected while people bid.
  
  But the nice poeple on eBay are cheap - and most won't bid on a reserve auction. But for those who do it stays on their bidded items list so maybe they'll be back.
  

  
  My posts viewed times
  since 8/1/6

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• hedgehog847 Posts: 371

  November 27, 2005 8:25AM

  Why not strike a happy medium? If you start the bidding at around $25, you might generate some interest by bidders who are looking for a deal. The more interest, generated, the more bids will be placed, and the higher the dollar amount. With all that interest, you might even get well over the $50 you want.
  
  That's my perspective...I want to try to get a deal. But, once I start bidding, I tend to really want what I'm bidding on, and may go over what I originally intended to pay (but not always).

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• BOOK Posts: 223

  November 27, 2005 8:48AM

  Once I start bidding I want it!

  
  My grandchildren. The heirs to my collection! (Just not to soon I hope)

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