eBay's most pointless tool

[Seth=L]

Reserve bids, the pinnacle of complete wastes of money in the online auction marketplace. I can think of no worthwhile reason for this to be a service offered from auction sites like eBay other than to line their pockets with more money.

Comments?

 

[10010011]

For the buyer yea, it's stupid, if the seller wants at least $20 then they should start the bidding at $20 not 99 cents, right?

But for sellers I think I has a place, if I understand it correctly...

Say you have a widget you want to sell.

You do not really know what it is worth but you want no less than $20 for it.

You can list it with a 99 cent starting bid but do not have to sell it if you do not get bids of at least $20.

Now I believe you do not have to pay ebay listing fees if your reserve is not met and you get to list it again for free.

It lets you as a seller see if the item is really worth what you think it is and not be forced to sell something at a loss.

 

[Seth=L]

I would just start it at $20 if that's what I wanted to get out of it. In most cases the reserve seems to be used by people just because it's an extra feature they can add to their sale they think might help them when it absolutely does not. I see your point, but I rarely see it used in this way.

 

[Nemo128]

Seth, it just increases watchers and bidders. It is pointless. In fact, I've been turned off by more reserve price auctions than I've been attracted to. It's a way to get attention to your listing with a low price that turns out to be bogus.

You're right, list at the intended price because it costs no more and no less.

 

[lsiberian]

Agreed! I hate those auction types

 

[tonygeno]

Seth, it just increases watchers and bidders. It is pointless. In fact, I've been turned off by more reserve price auctions than I've been attracted to. It's a way to get attention to your listing with a low price that turns out to be bogus.

You're right, list at the intended price because it costs no more and no less.

Or let the market decide and just do a no reserve auction starting a $1. The market usually floats to where it should be.

 

[Seth=L]

Seth, it just increases watchers and bidders. It is pointless. In fact, I've been turned off by more reserve price auctions than I've been attracted to. It's a way to get attention to your listing with a low price that turns out to be bogus.

You're right, list at the intended price because it costs no more and no less.

It actually costs less on eBay if you don't use it. If your auction hits the reserve they take like $20 or something. If you are selling something and your reserve is $100 and you get $101 they take normal fees, which is like 10% plus $20 for reserve. Configure in your listing fees, and quite possibly all the extra services that you didn't need, but you were somehow convinced they would help, and the item you sold for $101 you may only get $60 for in the end.

Also, the reserve auctions do almost the same thing to me as you have stated, they turn you off. I don't feel like playing games to find out the seller's stupid little mystery number. Setting a reserve price seems like something a child would do in order to annoy people, and that's exactly what it does. Nearly everyone that I've asked about it IRL has agreed that it is frustrating and once I explain it to them how it works they realize how pointless it is. If they had used it in the past they won't be using it anymore because they know understand the irrationality behind it and just how overly ridiculous it is.

 

[Seth=L]

Or let the market decide and just do a no reserve auction starting a $1. The market usually floats to where it should be.

You are right, the market usually floats where it should be. I guess some paranoid people, or those that just don't have a clue about what they have would use this feature. I think there has to be a percentage of people that assume that if the service is costly that it must be very beneficial to them somehow.

 

[Stereodude]

FWIW, Ebay did change the way the reserve works in the not too distant past though. They used to automatically increase your bid up to your maximum bid until the reserve was met. Now they don't. So, now auctions with a reserve behave just like a standard auction except the highest bidder might not get the item.