Should I tell them the reserve?

[simpo two]

Yep, it's an eBay thing!

I have a car for sale and just got a question:

'I am interested with your car but im very weary about buying such a complex car with such high miliage, i respect the fact it has near fsh. can you give me an idea of the reserve?'

Should I tell them what it is, or are they taking the p*ss? I'm inclined to say 'Submit your best offer and see what happens' but is that a bit rude?

[docevi1]

I usually want to ask what a person has a reserve simply because I want to know if my top offer is above what they are wanting - no point me wasting my time otherwise.

On the flip side, people don't want to divulge this information as it leads to the whole "xxx is only worth yyy".

I'd be inclinded to give a ball park figure of how much you hope to recieve, not how much the reserve is set at.

[rico]

I wouldn't say a thing. Just reply 'put your best offer and see what happens'.

The whole idea of a hidden reserve is so that the bidders don't know how much it is set at, until they pass it.

[Byff]

Then again, if the reserve hasn't been met yet, they could think that its going to be too much.

You could reply: The reserve price is sensibly set for this type of car.

Gives them a sense of hope and you'll not be wasting their time.

[dimmadan]

Telling them the reserve isnt revealing anything really. At the end of the day its highest bidder wins and setting a reserve gives you more options come the end of the auction.

[crankedup]

Its an auction, the bidder offers what he/she wants to pay. Disclose your reserve and your stuffed, otherwise treat your reserve as the 'Buy Now' price.

[poorcardealer]

tell them.if the reserve is above what he can afford then, he will bid on one he can .........that way you are not wasting each others time.the way the bidding works on ebay it will not cost you anything to tell him

[hugoagogo]

tell him nothing, if he bids what he thinks it worth he has nothing to lose

if it's higher than he thought, he can move on. wasting his time? 30 seconds for a bid? if it's lower, he's got a bid in

some people, eh

>> Edited by hugoagogo on Friday 17th December 19:41

[bor]

I do not understand this reserve thing. What's the advantage to anyone ?

Stop effing around and tell people the minimum you'll accept.

[edelbrock]

its called an auction, you dont tell them a thing, it completely misses the point telling people how much you want

[bor]

edelbrock said:

its called an auction, you dont tell them a thing, it completely misses the point telling people how much you want

How's it missing the point ?

Where's the advantage in not telling bidders how much you want to sell your item for ?

What does the seller gain ?

[Ribol]

bor said:

Where's the advantage in not telling bidders how much you want to sell your item for ? What does the seller gain ?

At any auction the more people that bid on an item, the better off you are, if your potential bidder cannot afford your reserve he will abandon ship early/now.

[JonRB]

I don't see that it makes a lot of difference other than the fact that if you tell him your reserve he's then in a position to try and haggle you into lowering the reserve (which you can do it there are no bids on the auction).

Personally I'd just tell them that the reserve is set to the minimum you'll accept for it, that it is non-negotiable and that bidding is all part of th efun of auctions.
Only more diplomatically.

[bor]

Twenty people bid, price reaches 99% of your reserve.

Bidders walk away. No sale.

You lose.

Reserve price known. I want it. I offer the reserve price. Everyone wins.

[Uriel]

Surely you have nothing to lose by telling them because of the waythe bidding system works. If it was a case of punters submitting a final bid with everything revealed at the end then I could see the point, but not on Ebay.

See, say you had a reserve of £10,000 and the punter was prepared to pay £15,000. If you didn't tell them and they made their offer Ebay would post the lowest possible bid to secure the highest bidding spot - £10,000. If no one comes along, they get the car for £10,000. So you gain nothing by them making a bid above the reserve. The only time you'd benfit from their high bid would be if someone else bid over the £10,000 and ebay upped the original bidder's bid. But if that happened you'd be above the reserve and it wouldn;t be an issue.

Plus the fact that they may only want to pay £9,500. They may bid, fail the reserve and give up. Whereas if they know they can meet the reserve for the sake of an extra £500 they may decide to increase their bid.

I think that's right...

[Ribol]

bor said:

Twenty people bid, price reaches 99% of your reserve. Bidders walk away. No sale. You lose. Reserve price known. I want it. I offer the reserve price. Everyone wins.

Sounds like you have got it sussed.

Only problem with your theory is if 20 bidders get to 99% of your reserve, the reserve was too high in the first place and will have put some buyers off bidding in the first place.

[simpo two]

bor said:

I do not understand this reserve thing. What's the advantage to anyone ? Stop effing around and tell people the minimum you'll accept.

Two points.
One: If the car is worth, say, £10K, and you start the auction at £10K, no one will bid. You need to start it lower to get people interested and enoucrage a bidding war.
Two: Ergo, if you start low and don't have a reserve, you might lose the car for £5K. How do you fancy that?

I've been watching the car auctions for a while and I can tell you that people who open the bidding at £10K, or have a Buy It Now of £10K - don't sell their cars.

My car is in for the second time, as the first time it was 'won' by a zero-feedback non-paying bidder. (w*nker). So I can tell you that when I had the opening price set at £995, no-one bid but I had over 30 watchers. When I dropped the opening price to £495, bidding suddenly started and within 24 hours it was over £995.

Trust me, eBay is a world apart from traditional car selling.

[falcemob]

I've asked sellers the reserve price for items in the past, some tell me, some don't. If i know the reserve I will either bid if I want to go to it, or not bid depending on how much I want to pay. I they won't tell me the reserve I will either wait until the reserve is met by someone else or not bid at all. Either way I generaly don't bid until the last couple of minutes anyway.

[Ribol]

simpo two said:

So I can tell you that when I had the opening price set at £995, no-one bid but I had over 30 watchers. When I dropped the opening price to £495, bidding suddenly started and within 24 hours it was over £995. Trust me, eBay is a world apart from traditional car selling.

That is exactly what happens at car auctions only instead of being on for days it's on for minutes.

[bor]

Encouraging a bidding war is a fair point, simpo.

From what I've seen I'd agree with that. Relies on a certain type of bidder, though.


EBAY - there's a bidder born every minute