As a bidder, I sometimes ask the price of a reserve, and sometime not. I only do it when I want to know whether or not it's worth my bidding.
As a seller, I often get people asking. But if I give a reserve that's higher than they want to pay, then they won't bid. If I say that I don't give out reserves, they usually don't bid anyway thinking that its higher than they want to pay. So my usual response is that the reserve is "negotiable", whether it is or not. This way they bid. What often happens (I believe) is that they get caught up in the bidding and pay more than they originally had in mind. If the auction doesn't hit the reserve, I possibly get a second chance at lowering my reserve after the auction is over b/c the interested buyer almost always emails me asking if I would negotiate the reserve. I then relist it on eBay with a buy-it-now at the agreed price, and email the buyer the auction #. If they back out, the item is still back on eBay. I once sold one of my Lionel trains for almost $100 more than the negotiated price b/c the buyer took too long to go to the auction. I had the starting bid $25 lower than the buy-it-now, but once people started bidding, the buy-it-now option was lost. -Mike -----Original Message----- From: Ron L'Herault [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 7:54 AM To: phon...@oldcrank. com; phonol...@yahoogroups. Com Subject: [Phono-L] reserve on E-ba* I'm helping a friend sell some high end audio gear on e-bay* which we listed with a reserve. Someone has e-mailed me and asked what the reserve price is. I've never done a reserve auction so am not sure what I should do here. Should I tell him what the reserve is? Should I tell him exactly or give a range/approximation? Or, should I say that I prefer not to give the reserve? Is there a good reason why I should or should not give out the reserve? Ron L _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list [email protected] Phono-L Archive http://www.oldcrank.org/pipermail/phono-l/
