15 replies to this topic

[RangerG]

I just wanted to ask the opinion of some of you that sell systems or small lots on Ebay. What are the advantages and disadvantages of setting a reserve on your auction vs. just putting a high minimum bid (which is in effect like your reserve)? I have always put reserves on anything worth over about $50, but what are your comments, opinions! Thanks -- RG

[Cap5750]

I don't sell anything on ebay, but I wouldn't think it would matter, but I'd stick with the reserve.

Take my perspective as a buyer, if I see something with a reserve and it hasn't been met yet I may or may not bid on it depending on if I really want it or not. Still, I might be encouraged to place a bid even if it is below the reserve. Why? I've seen a few times where the auction ended, the buyer and seller got together and worked out a deal.

On the other hand, there could be an item that has a high minimum bid. It might actually scare me away. Versus if there isn't a high minimum, I might bid on it and then keep bidding in the heat of competition.

Some things I'm sure you know, but that I consider more important are,

1) Include a picture...as clear as you can get it.

If I can't see what it looks like, I'll never place a bid.

2) Include a listing of the game(s).

If you do have a picture, but I can't make out what the name of the games are (especially if there a lot) and there isn't a description, again, I won't bid.

3) Don't try to pull wool.

Okay, I'm not the most serious collector, but I do know that Combat isn't ultra rare! In the last two days alone, I've seen sellers trying to tell me that Ms. Pacman, Empire Strikes Back, Frogger and Combat (yes Combat) are all extremely rare and hard-to-find carts. Funny...in my small collection, I don't have a Ms. Pacman...but I do own 2 ESB, 4 Froggers and 2 Combats. If I see something like that and a if someone is bidding a lot of money, I'll usually e-mail them and tell them that they can get the cart a lot cheaper.

4) Keep the price real

Ok...maybe it's because I'm not a serious collector, but I'm not paying as much for an Atari 2600 game as I would an XBOX, PS2, or PC game. Now if it is one of the extremely rare carts and I wanted it, I'd do it. But I'm not about to give you $5 for pacman or $12 for E.T. My general rule of thumb is no more then $2...again unless it is extremely rare...but since I'm not a serious collector, I've never had to worry about that.

Cap

[CosmicJoke]

I have sold some things on eBay and I would agree that a Reserve is the better option.

Even if you have high Reserve that isn't met, people will still bid. This will give you a more realistic view of the actual "worth" of what you are attempting to sell.

If you have a Minimum Bid that is too high, you won't get any bids and may never learn the actual "worth" of the item you are attempting to sell.

Just my opinion.

[CaliColts]

Ive been buying and selling on ebay for 3 years and IMO reserve price auctions get fewer bidders and lower prices.

I never bid on anything with a reserve unless I just have to have the item, most of the time I just pass them by without looking.

Most sellers who use reserves or buy it now overprice most of their items from my experience.

[Pie]

I have to agree…I have often seen things with a reserve price end with only a couple of bids or none at all. With a reserve its almost as if your wasting your time bidding, as the seller has already set the price. Now I know that a high starting price is the same, but these auctions generally tend to do better.

[maximebeauvais]

I don't really bid on reserve item because the seller know the value of the item and he want the maximum money....

High price starting ...I don't bid on it too

So as a buyer: I only bid on normal auction with a lower starting price and let do a fight!!! Also, must have a picture (or real picture not a fake)

As a seller: no reserver except big lot (one of my lot was 12 nes system with 200 game and set up a reserve of 400$, reserve was meet after one days!!!)

[Philflound]

Ok, seems like I should handle this question since I"ve put on at least 5000 auctions for me or for my friend.

Reserve is good if you have an expensive item that you paid high for and do not want to sell for cheap. What you do is create interest. You can start your minimum bid at $.01 and then see what the market will allow. There are many times when we put on a statue that has a retail price of $195.00, set a reserve at $99.99, and see it only go for $75.00. Since we paid around $115 for the statue, we can take a small loss just to get back some money, but losing $40 would be too much.

Some people do set a reserve as to a very high value like Max says, but to me, a reserve should be used to ensure the seller isn't losing money.

We never put a reserve on items $50 or less. Listing fee is only $1.10 or less for $49.99 and it's a reasonable starting bid if an item is slightly higher.

Phil

[Cap5750]

Looks like it's split. Hehe...

Of course, you can look at this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/...item=1373442743

Darth Vader? See the buy it now price? Hmm...don't think I'll be bidding on that anytime soon.

Cap

[Philflound]

Well, he didn't get his reserve. Again, I say some people are greedy about the whole thing, but it boils down to whether or not you want to spend the money.

When you set a reserve, you must pay the fee that the reserve is set at.

here is an example:

You put a reserve at $30.00 for an item. You will pay the listing fee, which is $1.10 because it is the same as listing $30.00 as a minimum bid. In addition to this, you pay an additional fee of $1.10 if I am correct. This additional fee is refunded if the reserve is met. Ebay is making a fortune.

Phil

[MrRetroGamer]

I like to use a reserve in combination with a pretty fair BUY-IT-NOW, that way some joker doesn't come along for the minimum bid and kill the whole BIN thing. The reserve keeps the BIN alive until the reserve is met, so maybe someone comes along an uses the BUY-IT-NOW a few days later, because it's still available. Normally the BIN goes away after the first initial bid. I just sold something this way recently as a matter of fact.

[Markimus of K.]

Simply: RESERVE and/ or high MINIMUM bid = no customers. If I see either, I will not bid at all, and if I consider myself as an average collector, multipy that by anything and the sellers using this are losing a lot of bids.

It goes like this: It's worth what someone will pay for it. It's called:
A) Capitalism
B) A free market

It's far from perfect but it sure works when selling video games. If a seller listed a new Battlesphere Gold would it not fetch anything without a Reserve or high Minimum bid? We all know the answer to this.

I do however like the BIN feature, this works quite well, hey if I want it for that price, I'll simply buy it.

As always,
Markimus of K.

[RangerG]

I'm surprised by the resentment against reserve. I don't sell that often, but I have in the past used reserve and I bid on items with reserve. I tend to only bid on items in really nice shape and actually I see reserve as a sign that something is worth something. For instance, if I want a Colecovision, I want one that looks near mint and that the person has cleaned/tested/checked. I fully expect him/her to put a reserve on it if it a nice machine to protect their time and investment. It shows me they really have something. I second what Mr. Retrogamer said about putting a reserve that isn't too high, but something to make you not lose too much either. I hate to think putting reserve scares bidders, but I have had two auctions not make reserve one week and then I relisted them and they ended up double the reserve the next week. Prices on Ebay are unpredictable and I think it is fair to put a reserve -- just my 2 cents, but thanks for the opinions.

[Cap5750]

Well it's just really odd that this has come up. Guess what? This evening, I'm looking at going, going gone for Atari systems and see a CX2600 with 42 games. I check it out. The person leading the bidding is well below what I'd pay and it hasn't reached the reserve yet. I win the auction with my bid, but it still doesn't reach the reserve. So, I e-mail the guy and ask him if he'll sell it to me anyway. At the same time, he e-mails me asking if I'll take it for more then what I bid. So then I had to e-mail back in which I told him, I'd go as high as my max bid (which was only $5 less then what he wanted anyway). So far...no answer. Oh well....who needs another atari 2600 anyway? Even though this model is the same one like I GAVE AWAY when I was probably around 14 because most of the switches wouldn't work anymore.

[MrRetroGamer]

cap5750 said:

I win the auction with my bid, but it still doesn't reach the reserve. (

You don't officially "win" if the reserve is not met. There is no transaction in EBAYs eyes if the reserve is not met even if you were the high bidder.

[Cap5750]

I know I don't officially win, but I won so I'm the winner of the won object only I didn't win it because to win you have to hit the reserve to win which I didn't do so even though I won I didn't win.

Got it?



Cap

[MrRetroGamer]

cap5750 said:

I know I don't officially win, but I won so I'm the winner of the won object only I didn't win it because to win you have to hit the reserve to win which I didn't do so even though I won I didn't win.

Got it?

 

Cap

If that makes you feel better to think you won but you didn't win, um, OK.