A reserve is your lowest acceptable price.  It is a little more
straight forward to just make your opening bid your lowest price and
go from there.  Generally a reserve is kept secret.  It costs a little
more to run a reserve auction.  If you are testing the value of
something you can set a high reserve and see how the bidding goes.
I don't run reserve auctions.  I prefer bidding on "no reserve"
auctions.  I don't see the point.  If you want at least $X, then make
the opening bid $X.
Also, if you would be thrilled to death to get $Z for something you
can make it a "Buy It Now" auction for $Z.
Keys to ebay selling are PICS! and thorough descriptions.
Someone gave a friend of mine a TR3 hulk, after seeing his Sprite.
"You like British cars?  I'll bring you one for free."  We looked at
it and decided it would be a tough restoration.  I offered to list it
on ebay for him figuring he would get a few hundred bucks.  The car
was restorable, rusty but complete,  the interior was trashed, the top
was gone, and we had no title.  We took several pictures and I listed
it with a good description, stating that we had no title, etc.  The
car sold for $3500.
If you are new to selling on ebay then use the search feature to see
what similar items are doing and how they are listed.  Find a listing
you like and use it as an outline.  Be honest, upfront, and cover all
your bases.
 
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