Bottle Auction - Reserve vs Opening Bid

[saratogadriver]

I just see a lot of auctions sitting there with high starting bids, and nothing moving. Then they come back with a fairly low starting bid, and often end up higher than the high starting bid.

Just my two pennies of course.

Jim G

 

[diggerdirect]

A couple of other takes on the 'reserve' auction....while all the above 'for' or 'against' views are certainly valid points, for years many dealers & collectors, not only in the bottle cats but across the spectrum of antiques & collectibles used it for a 'realtime' appraisal of items.

Whats this worth?...look it up on eBay!
Can't find it?....list it (with a high reserve) to see what its worth!

eBay stemmed this tide somewhat by raising the listing price equal to the reserve price, (ie: a .35 cent listing fee & a 3.00 reserve fee is now 3.00 & 3.00) & discontinuing the refund of reserve fee if item sells. If the item sells at the ridiculously high reserve then fine, if not you can always do the 'second chance' thing or offer it to the high bidder if your looking to sell.

Another angle is when one is selling items on consignment for others. These forums have tons of posts of great deals people have gotten when items 'fell through the cracks'. When you give a consignor an educated estimate of what any given piece might bring, & your cut is a percentage of the selling price, well, can't have to much stuff fallin through the cracks! its just bad for business all the way around! []

Personally I seldom if ever used a reserve on my own items, I figure it all comes out in the wash, at the end of the day what I lose on one I made up for on another is usually how it works out.

 

[jays emporium]

Placing a reserve price on an ebay item is a good way to assure you do not get ANY bids. I've noticed this many times when I was searching for different items on ebay. For example, I was looking for a Drake's Plantation Bitters at a good price for many months. There would be 5 - 10 examples on ebay most of the time and they usually sold for about $120 for a common amber one in good shape. Whenever I'd see one with less than a day to go with a low price I'd have to look at it. Invariably it would either be damaged or be a reserve price auction. A nice Drakes with a starting bid of $24.99 but hidden reserve would generally not get any bids but the same bottle with no reserve would sell for over $100.
So IMO placing an auction with reserve or bidding on a reserve auction is a waste of time. It certainly is not an effective way to determine a realistic price because most buyers will not bother to bid. And as a buyer, I want to have a competitive bid against other buyers, not against the seller.

 

[bottle_head9]

I don`t like reserves, but sometimes they are necessary if you have a buy it now price.For some reason, a buy it now price is cancelled out when a bid is placed on an item.If you put a reserve, and it isn`t reached, the buy it now stays active until the reserve is reached.I think all Ebay auctions should have a buy it now, no matter how inflated it might be.You could always just hit the buy it now button.Actually, I`ve seen numerous items sell above and beyond the buy it now price.[&:]

 

[diggerdirect]

It is amazing how very different peoples views with eBay or other online venues can be! I've had MANY prospective buyers email and ask what my reserve was on an item they were looking at, thats never been a problem for me, letting a serious buyer know what the bottom line was, and they have shown some intent of seriousness by emailing to ask, no sense having a guy waste his time, and when I'm buying, if the seller doesn't respond or hemms & hawws to a question...I simply take it off my watch list, hit the back button and move on. But I do agree Unrealistic reserves waste everybody's time. If a reserve is placed to protect ones investment, and your investment is at or above retail for the item, well, good chance it won't sell (unless atleast two people want it.) & your probably not going to be in business very long at any rate.

From my experience, the number of buyers that wont bid period if there is a reserve on an item is a very small percentage at best.

Anyone who has sold a substantial amount of items online knows that any given item can bring any given price on any given day, its all about the audience, the exposure, who's looking and when. thats just a fact, and if the reserve doesn't get met the first time around, perhaps it is priced to high for the market, same as at a show, or the right person didn't see it. IMO reasonable reserves in good quality listings are often met & more often than not exceeded.
I see many other factors that determine what any given item brings or how many, if any, bids are placed besides the ominous 'Reserve Not Met' slogan, poor pictures &/or poor descriptions are two big ones. Titles & keywords are also a factor, if they don't see it they cant bid.

As a buyer..you betcha I won't pass on a deal! A reserve price indicates it probably aint happenin with this listing, time to move on.
But as a seller, some pieces just warrant the protection the reserve provides when in an auction format.

Its like GuntherHess said, "Some people will always use reserves , some people will never use them."

Al