I dont understand this!

Was on e-bay yesterday. Man had a restored JD 720 gas for sale. About 10 left had 4 bids up to $5300. Reserve not met at that point. Seller says no hurry to sell if it doesn't bring the right price.

Why does this seller not start the bid at his minimum price?

I thought about bidding, & when I saw the reserve wasn't met I quickly changed my mind. I am not going to waste my time trying to figure out what someone wants for a tractor when they already know what they want for it!!! Was not more than a 2 1/2 hour drive away would have been an easy haul. I have sold on e-bay with a reserve, & always started at what I want for it. If it doesn't bring a bid (which only happened once) I am fine with it.

Deere Scotty
 
I often wonder the same thing, unless it is to feel the waters out and they really are not that motivated to sell. i can see having a reserve, but at some point I think there comes a time to disclose what you want for something as I am like you, I do not like guessing that they seller wants for it. I figure it is up to the seller to price the item, then I can always make a lower offer if I disagree. Rarely will I offer with no idea what the seller wants for it. I have been watching a vehicle on ebay for the past couple months now. This is the 3rd round of them listing it, and both previous times it has not met reserve, and I notice it seems bidders are losing interest as it is way behind where it was the previous attempt, but has a day or so left, and reserve is still not being met. I am only watching as I have a similar item I plan on selling and trying to determine pricing on my item based on high bids. I figure after 3 rounds of him trying to sell, and active bidding (roughly 30 bids), he should have a fair idea what it is worth, unless he has someone bidding the item up.
 
At a local on line auction, they will do the same thing. I often wonder if the high bidder would have met the min. or reserve bid if it had been made known to them. If no one bids against you, the bid will not go up enough to meet the reserve, even if you would have paid more.
SDE
 
I think they do that when they don't know the value and arewaiting to see where the bids are going to lie>
 
They usually want twice what it's worth. If they started it at what they want no one would bid.
 
When I see "reserve" i figure they don't have a clue and I, for one , are not giving them one. When I sell it is either absolute auction or "buy it now" priced. If you don't give buyers at least a little credit for at least knowing how to breath, there,s no use listing. Buy it now or absolute auction is how I sell.. I have had some luck buying tho, on the ones with By it Now or best offer by making an offer in the last 10 min. or so. Anything with the word "reserve" on it , I don't even bid. I sell 99% buy it now and price it reasonably and I have good luck with it.
 
I will not not bid on an item with a reserve unless it's something I absolutely can't live without but on eBay usually If one is selling ten more just like it is selling
 
I see both sides the reserve protects the seller say you want $5000 for your item but for what ever reason it only gets bid to $450??? On the other hand they should say reserve is $5000.
 
Agreed. How many times does the auctioneer try to start at what will probably be the selling price that backs up to some number around 20% of what it eventually brings? They try to start a tractor at $5000 (about what its worth) and its dead silence, then they back it up to $1500 and the bidding takes off fast and furious and stops at $5,100.
 
On eBay, if you bid more than the reserve, the bid price automatically jumps up to reserve. If I bid on eBay, and want the best price, I bid my max within 30 seconds of the end. I have seen sniping programs trying to bid the minimum increment and they don't move up enough at the end.
 
He might be trying to find a buyer he can contact outside of ebay to avoid the commission. Or he might be testing the waters.
 
No big deal I usually put in my first and maximum bid with about 8 seconds left in the listing.If I get it fine, don't meet the reserve,another bidder wants to pay more etc.That's
the way an auction goes.Stupid to waste one's times bidding until the very end of an ebay auction anyway,plus you should never show your hand on how much you're willing to pay for an item.
If the bid is only $20 and I'm willing to pay $300 I put in the $300 maximum anyway. I think a lot of people get lulled into under bidding more than they would actually give because
it looks like an item may go cheap.
 
I have been to a number of auctions where there was a reserve on some of the higher valued items. Usually, the auctioneer will offer it to the high bidder at the reserve price if the reserve is not met.
I can see the reasoning for having a reserve. It protects the seller from selling an item for a price that is simply too low. But, on the other hand, I see no reason to keep it a secret. Secret reserves annoy me to no end. I figure if that is your price, then why not just save us both a lot of time and aggravation and start there. We can haggle up or down, but I don't like the guessing games.
 
"Seller says no hurry to sell if it doesn't bring the right price." That sentence sums it all up. In those instances I make my offer. If it isn't accepted I move on.

On ebay it is pretty easy to ask the seller a question, like "What is your reserve price?".
 
I haven't sold on eBay in quite awhile, but it used to be the fee eBay got was based on starting & final price (if the item sold). So if I listed an absolute auction for a tractor starting at my reserve of $10,000 it might cost me $20 for the listing on eBay, whereas if I list it for a $1 with a reserve they use to get $.25 for the listing and $1 because it had a reserve meaning the listing cost me a $1.25 vs. $20.
 
It's all about the "auction fever." People will bid when the price is low because they think they've got a chance of getting it cheap. Then you hope they get caught up in the excitement. Even better when you get two guys that are bound and determined not to let the other one win.

Putting the price you want on your item on ebay never works. Unless you are absolutely giving it away. People won't even pay a fair price for something.

Having a reserve does hurt the seller, because it makes people hesitant to bid.
 
A word of caution about bidding on a reserve item on E-Bay. If you put in a max bid and that number meets the reserve, the bid will automatically go to the reserve. ie: Say the item is at $5,000 and the reserve (unknown to all but the seller) is $6,999. If you type in $7,000 as a max bid, the item will instantly go to $6,999 with you as the high bidder. Don't ask how I learned this, but it included a trip from Detroit to Oklahoma City to pick up tractor.
 

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