Reserve not met.....

[ladislastazi_0]

Lately I was wasting my time with bidding on auctions where at the end I received Reserve not met answer. According to rules, everybody can list an item for 1 dollar and put the reserve on 1000, therefore, bidding will be mostly waste of time. Therefor instead of loosing my time and bidding for items like that, every time I saw ''Reserve not met'', I simply move away, bidding there without knowledge how many to bid is a waste of time.

[*madison]

If I bid on a reserve auction I usually hit the reserve amount with the first bid because I place a realistic bid, and not a fantasy bid ...

[bigdeals.etc]

Yes you are correct. That's why many sellers know not to have a reserve in their listing. But also many are still beginners and too afraid that their item will end at a low price.

Sometimes I don't even bother to bid on auctions because it's a lot of time monitoring it only to find in the last second someone will swoop in and win. Which will also be a waste of time. I just buy it right away with fixed price or buy it now.

[lintbrush*]

I personally don't like reserve auctions either, but they can serve a purpose (or at least they used to)

To generate interest, eBay recommends starting your auction low... very low.. sometimes at $1.  Do that and you always run the risk of selling your item for $1.  As a seller, depending on the value, that risk is foolish.  A reserve prevents my item from being sold for less than I'd be willing to take.

However, the way to ensure that is to start my auction at the lowest I'd take and hope for the best.  That's easy to do now, but in the past, the listing fees would be based on the start price - which could add up if the item didn't sell the first go round.

Bidding on a reserve isn't a bad thing.   If you understand how a reserve auction works, they aren't a waste of time for the buyer.  As soon as you place your bid, you know whether or not you met the reserve - you don't have to wait until the end -  your losing bid cannot become the winning bid - and you can move on.  With non-reserve auctions, your bid stays valid until the end of the auction.  

But with reserve auctions, you need to put a thoughtful bid in.  Trying to nibble your way up to meet the reserve rarely works.  

If an item is worth about $1000, do you think your $4 bid is going to meet the reserve?  You might meet it with a $400 bid though.

[mistwomandancing]

Here's the way to figure it when you hit an auction with a reserve in place:   It already has its First Bid, and that bid if from the seller himself.  Now you can either beat it or not.  

If your bid is higher than that first bid, you'll slip into the lead.   If your bid isn't high enough to beat out that opening bid from the seller, he remains in the lead as high bidder on the item.   Consider it pretty much like any other auction, except the opening bid to beat is from the seller himself.

[luckythewinner]

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@ladislastazi_0wrote:

According to rules, everybody can list an item for 1 dollar and put the reserve on 1000, therefore, bidding will be mostly waste of time. 

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And eBay laughs their way to the bank, because a US seller who does that is paying a $40 reserve price fee for that item, whether the item sells or not. 

If I see a reserve price auction, I generally walk away because it usually signals that the seller does not know what he is doing. 

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

You should totally change the way you feel about auctions. Bidding should not even be a verb. That implies doing something more than once.

You place ONE BID as close to the end as possible for the maximum you are willing to pay plus a few pennies. If you win, you win. Doesn't matter if there are other bidders OR a reserve.

You're welcome.

[nowthatsjustducky]

That is why you treat auctions with reserves just like any other.  Simply bid your max.  If it doesn't meet the reserve, then move on.  It is really no different than bidding on an auction that already has bids.  You bid your max, and if you don't beat the current high bidder, move on.  You already know what you are willing to pay, so there is no need to try to guess what the reserve or the top bidder's max in the latter case is.

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@mistwomandancingwrote:

Here's the way to figure it when you hit an auction with a reserve in place:   It already has its First Bid, and that bid if from the seller himself.  Now you can either beat it or not.  

If your bid is higher than that first bid, you'll slip into the lead.   If your bid isn't high enough to beat out that opening bid from the seller, he remains in the lead as high bidder on the item.   Consider it pretty much like any other auction, except the opening bid to beat is from the seller himself.

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yes Yes YES!!!  That is what I have been trying to explain many many times when this complaint comes up; but those making it just keep parroting over and over the nonsense about having to play guessing games.

I swear, when these threads, as well as ones about sniping come up, it is a good bet the ones complaining are simply too afraid to admit that they are simply expecting to get their item for pennies on the dollar instead of whatever they really believe the item is worth.

[newnewnewmann]

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@ladislastazi_0wrote:

Lately I was wasting my time with bidding on auctions where at the end I received Reserve not met answer. According to rules, everybody can list an item for 1 dollar and put the reserve on 1000, therefore, bidding will be mostly waste of time. Therefor instead of loosing my time and bidding for items like that, every time I saw ''Reserve not met'', I simply move away, bidding there without knowledge how many to bid is a waste of time.

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Just bid as much as you're willing to pay.  You could win it in a second chance offer if you had the highest bid but the reserve wasn't met.

I don't like reserves either and generally avoid them, but for a collectible I may put a bid in.

The seller is paying extra fees to list with reserves, I think maybe some are inexperienced at selling and don't know what they are getting into, and others use reserves as a marketing ploy to attract bidders.