Huh!!??.... Reserve not yet met??

[Cheetah10 10]

What is it that I do not understand?...... How can your reserve price be higher than your opening amount?? The way I see it, the guy will not sell if his reserve price is not met..... (am I right)??..... So, why say start bidding at R500..... if the guy has a reserve of R750???... does not make sense.....

 

Surely bidding should start at the minimum amount that the seller is prepared to accept for his item???

[wayjen 10]

I have yet to understand why people use a reserve price. If you have your price in mind then list it at the amount you want and if it goes higher then smile all the way to the bank.

[Seeds for Africa 18]

The psychology of a reserve price is that you open at a lower price to garner interest. Its pretty common practice in all auction formats. Having said that I have found on bob, that whilst you may be bidding below reserve and may not win, you may be made a personal offer for the item, at the price you originally bid on.

[wayjen 10]

people bidding on a lower priced item will soon get bored/annoyed with "reserve not met" popping up on their screen and they will move to another seller. Try bidding on something on eBay and watch how those automatic bids pop up the second after you bid on an item. Same thing as reserve not met, you get bored and look for greener pastures.

[TaLamia 18]

I agree with wayjen. For the novice bidder/site-user it is a very confusing thing to grasp and frustrates way more than it is understood I think. I say just do away with the whole reserve price function. Sellers can simply list according to the lowest price they are willing to accept, simple as that.

[Jacques Kuun 12]

Hello all

Each and every live auction that I have ever attended started with the auctioneer asking for an opening bid that was higher than the reserve.

Only when there were no bids at that level (or a couple below), would he move down to the reserve.

Regards

Jacques