Andrew B. Lundgren wrote:
> Why set a reserve rather than just starting the auction for the
> minimum that you are willing to sell it for?
Because sometimes the minimum of what someone is required to bid is the
cieling of their conception of what their maximum bid should be. By
reducing minimum bid, while having a reserve, the buyer is unaware of the
reserve price... which should promote bidding because you can still give the
impression of the auction being undervalued.
> Is there some thought that the feeding frenzy will drive the price
> up higher than what someone would be willing to pay normally or
> something else?
Yes.
> If so, then why not start the bidding at $0.99 and set your reserve >
where you want it?
The point is not to make it obvious. The key to being a successful seller
on eBay is to make people believe your product is undervalued, and therefore
the buyer believes the seller is unaware of the true value of what he or she
is selling. A $0.99 opening bid gives away this perception. No one expects
a nice MGB to sell for $0.99.
I was able to sell a decent, but not the world's greatest, AH 3000 grille
surround on eBay a few weeks ago for $362... this wasn't even a complete
grille. I was willing to chance that it may sell for $200, but I was
relatively certain I would hit $325. I used no reserve, no buy-it now
feature, and I opened the bidding at $99.95. The last five minutes of the
auction are what counts, and it showed with two individuals each attempting
out bid each other.
This was a 7 day auction, and no one placed a bid at all until the 6th day.
Again the reason being that everyone who was a bidder, or potential bidder
didn't want to pass on this bargain auction to anyone else. They all were
going to try and get the bargain grille in the last day of the auction.
Effectively, in 24 hours there were 20 bidders placing bids. Each
surpassing the previous bid in their attempts to be the one to tell the
local club guys how they picked up a cheap grille on eBay.
I usually don't use reserves, I'm conscious of what my items are worth and I
can accurately predict at what prices they will finally sell for. So as I
said, it is to the seller's advantage to be experienced and knowledgeable...
but not to let the viewers/buyers know this. Then the rest of it is faith,
and knowing that you shouldn't post certain things on eBay during major
national or regional marque shows... (i.e. don't post Triumph items during
the yearly VTR convention). The traffic levels on these lists is also a
good indication of how much bidding your auctions will receive... periods of
low list activity typically translate into similar periods of low bidding
activity on eBay for auctions related to each list's respective marque.
I've also done extensive data mining of completed auctions on eBay, and the
research and time spent with the spreadsheets pays off.
Kai
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