giving my Reserve Price (via personal msg) to a possible bidder

[disneyshopper]

Sure.  No problem doing that.

You can even give that information in the description to save buyers time with trying to guess your reserve price.

Why not save that NON REFUNDABLE fee and just start the auction at the lowest price you will accept if you only get 1 bid ?

[btexpress242]

Thank You for your input !!

[fine_find]

I'm a seller and a buyer. As a buyer, I have messaged other sellers to see what their reserve price is. Why keep it a secret? Knowing the reserve price helps a buyer know if they are interested or not.

On another note. I have seen this go badly for the seller when you don't get enough bids to reach your reserve price and you actually have buyers who would readily pay your reserve price but can't get enough bidders to bid to get it there. I have been one of those buyers before but had no intention of waiting for another auction to see if enough buyers would bid enough to reach it again. You loose these buyers when the reserve isn't reach because of a lack of bidders. Best to save your money on reserve fees and just put the amount you want as the beginning price at your auction. Hope you find this helpful.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@fine_find wrote: .... I have seen this go badly for the seller when you don't get enough bids to reach your reserve price and you actually have buyers who would readily pay your reserve price but can't get enough bidders to bid to get it there. ....

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That's not how reserves work.  If a bid meets or exceeds the reserve price, then the high bid showing will immediately jump up to the reserve, and the item will sell.  It is not necessary to have multiple bidders who bid up to the reserve; a single bid will do it.  

[fine_find]

I will say it again. Unless you have the bidders who will make those bids happen, it will not matter what the reserve price is. Most bidders will only increase the bids by a small amount.

As for a single bid doing it, not necessarily. The top bid will only go as high as the bidder beneath them bid. Not the most that they bid. The bidder beneath the last bidder would have to have bid over the reserve for that to work. So I stand by what I said.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@fine_find wrote: ... As for a single bid doing it, not necessarily. The top bid will only go as high as the bidder beneath them bid. Not the most that they bid....

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That's not how it works.  If a bid is placed that meets or exceeds the Reserve price, then the reserve has been met, and the high bid showing will immediately jump up to the reserve amount. It is not necessary to have an underbidder.

[btexpress242]

Thank You for your insightful reply  BT

[btexpress242]

Thank You   BT

[btexpress242]

Thank You    BT

[fine_find]

Thank you for recognizing what I was trying to explain here. The high bid is not the maximum a buyer is bidding but rather just over the previous high bidder's amount. Without more bids, your maximum may never show up.

[fine_find]

The high bid is just over what the previous high bidder's amount was. It does not shoot up like that no matter how much you wish it would. Been there done that, so I know. I have bid higher than the reserve price but the bid showing was just over the next highest bid which was well below the reserve price. It does not go up to my highest amount unless other bidders keep bidding and trigger the automatic to bid again.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Seriously nobodys is totally correct. If you bid over the reserve price it will jump to the reserve price. I've been on Ebay for nearly 20 years and bought somewhere around 25,000 items. Reserves have always worked this way. You have NEVER needed multiple bidders to reach the reserve as that does not make sense. Ebay wants things to sell, that's how they get paid.

Regardless many buyers do not like reserves so it's better to just start your listing for the least you would take.

[7606dennis]

Why would you want to do that?  If you were going to do that, why not put it in the listing?  Or better yet, why not just setting your starting bid at the amount of the reserve and save the money for the reserve fee?

[7606dennis]

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@fine_find wrote:
I'm a seller and a buyer. As a buyer, I have messaged other sellers to see what their reserve price is. Why keep it a secret? Knowing the reserve price helps a buyer know if they are interested or not.

On another note. I have seen this go badly for the seller when you don't get enough bids to reach your reserve price and you actually have buyers who would readily pay your reserve price but can't get enough bidders to bid to get it there. I have been one of those buyers before but had no intention of waiting for another auction to see if enough buyers would bid enough to reach it again. You loose these buyers when the reserve isn't reach because of a lack of bidders. Best to save your money on reserve fees and just put the amount you want as the beginning price at your auction. Hope you find this helpful.

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Actually, the psychology behind not divulging the amount of a reserve is to avoid setting a value figure in the mind of potential bidders.  It should be remembered that a reserve is the minimum amount that a seller willing to take for the item.  It is not the amount that he wants for the item.

Of course, since all eBay auctions require a minimum starting bid that acts as a reserve, why pay extra to place a reserve?  Simply set the starting bid at the amount you would set as a reserve.