Ebay: is it common to tell people your reserve price?

listed some forks , and ppl keep asking the reserve price is this normal / allowed?

yeah – why not?

I can't think of a single reason not to

Doesn't make a lot of difference if they don't make the reserve. If theres only one person bidding on them and he bids 99p, it ends at 99p, no matter how much he's willing to pay.

putting a reserve on puts folk off IMO and the final selling price is usually less/reserve not met compared with stuff that starts cheap and has no reserve. just what I've noticed over the years.

I can't think of a single reason not to

You might as well just put it up for a minimum price then?

I hate reserves, pointless, I'll simply not bid on an item with a reserve price.

You might as well just put it up for a minimum price then?

Yup – but physiologically, bidders tend to start the bidding if it's a low start price – there's no working it out how they'll behave sometimes

Not sure what the difference in ebay fees would be between the 2 methods either
I never use reserves or high starting bids – yet to be burned badly

dont really get reserve prices why not start the auction at your reserve price ?

Whats the point of bidding if you cant win the auction with your bid ?

I agree with cp and others, reserves are a waste of time and just put me off bidding on things.

As many have said reserve prices are a major waste of time.

99p start and no reserve. You'll get what it's worth* in 99.9% of cases

*what it's worth and what you think it's worth are different things.

If you tell them at and the item doesn't sell, at least they can come back and negotiate.

normally list at 99p no reserve. if something is going terribly then ill pull it off with a couple of days to go.

Almost always get good prices. If you're not selling tat, then people will pay a fair price for stuff.

have pulled about 2 things in 2 years. it seems cranks just dont sell well!

i always use buy it now with best offer function, never in a rush to sell, always get how much i want, usually within 10 days

I'm hoping no one buys this so that I can offer him less
an auction at a low starting price would have found it's value – which I reckon is about half that

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Yamaha-TZ-TD2-TZ350-260mm-Four-Leading-Shoe-Front-Brake_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem3caa613ae3QQitemZ260556536547QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

If something has a reserve I'll usually just ignore it, there's normally plenty of alternatives where the seller is prepared to advertise it at a price he's prepared to sell at. On the rare occasion it's something unusual, I'll ask what the reserve is; most people give it. I was buying a car recently, asked a chap about the reserve and he wouldn't give it, said I'd have to bid to find out. I bought the same car from a dealer for a fair price, his car didn't get any bids.

If you have a reserve and tell people what the reserve is then thats just the same as setting the starting price as the lowest price you'll accept, so why not just to that? When I'm bidding and sensible bids are being made and the reserve is still not being met I just look elsewhere, it tells me that the bidder doesn't actually want to sell.

When selling I never bother with reserves, but I also don't do 99p starting prices if it would do me harm for an item to sell too cheaply. You need two serious people bidding to get a good price, if you've only got one then your stuffed. I've never had a problem with items with a reasonable starting price either not selling, or them not being fought over, just be sure that the price is the very least you can afford to let it go for and people will bid it up higher than if you set the start too high.

But i think you save money (fees) with reserve as opposed to starting at a high price.

Personally a reserve never puts me off bidding as i have a limit I'll spend, if asked I generally let them guess so I'll say its between £100 and £200 so it is obvious it is £150, this encourages questions, and questions encourage watchers, which often turn into bidders.

If you have a value you want to attain for an item then stick it on a BIN auction. If the item has no value to you – per say – then stick it on at 99p and let it run.

Sunday night is the time to end an Auction.

I rarely list stuff with a reserve – it costs more on Ebay. Just set your starting price at the minimum you expect. If I do set a reserve I never reveal it. It costs the buyer nothing to bid, so just tell them to bid. Simple.

Marko

Sunday night is the time to end an Auction.

I think this is a bit of myth also, I rarely bid now I just set up snippers, I would never end an auction on a saturday night but any other evening you'll get a similar amount.

If you're watching several of the same item and the one ending last has a small advantage over the other, but has a reserve and the seller won't say what it is, then what do you do? Gamble that the reserve is realistic or risk missing out on the earlier auctions.

Usually if someone has a reserve it means the price is unrealistic and they're relying on people bidding to find the reserve to get the price up. Sensible bidders will avoid any seller that won't reveal the reserve.

In all seriouness, the stats show that non-reserve auctions for indentical items end up with higher prices than ones with reserves. I never sell with a reserve, and I've sold a few high priced items on ebay.

>I'll simply not bid on an item with a reserve price.

>the stats show that non-reserve auctions for indentical items end up with higher prices

Which IMO would indicate that as a *buyer* there's an argument to let the sheep go chasing stuff that doesn't have a reserve (and may well end higher), and keep a close eye on the stuff that *does* have a reserve when it gets near to it's completion time.

For than matter I can never work work out start minor bidding wars a couple of days in advance for the end, all the interesting activity happens in the last few minutes…