"Reserve not yet met"

B

bpman

Basic Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
189
Is it just me...or when you are looking at an on line auction...and you see the words next to the highes bid.."Reserve not yet met"...don't you get a tad bit annoyed? For me it goes beyond a tad bit of annoyance...and decends into the downright...Aggravating!!!

I understand that people are trying to get as much for their auction items as they can(I've seen plenty of knife auctions with thes words so it's not just on Ebay) but a simple starting bid for the least amount they will accept for an item would suffice! To me, these reserve auctions are simply a means of systematically running the price up to where it normally would not be...because people: a)Get caught up in the excitement of the bidding wars and b) have to keep bidding up, just to find the minimum amount a seller is willing to accept (and this usually means putting in a proxy bid and praying to god someone does not keep bidding you up to your Max).

As I stated earlier, a simple opening bid of the least amount that one would accept for the item is a fairer way of doing it. Everyone knows going into it that you might win with the opening bid or you may end up in a bidding war...those are the chances we take but with a "Reserve" set before the first bid is cast...leaves no one with a comfortable feeling as to how much the item has to go, after all...the seller could be wanting much more than you feel an item is worth...but you'll never know it until you keep bidding..and keep bidding...and finally get to the point where you say "enough is enough"!

I feel that "Reserve" auctions are little more than lotteries and you're hoping that the bid you place (or number you play, as it were)..will be the magic number to get you in the running for the prize you seek.

Just a little venting folks...sorry if I rambled on a bit.

bpman

P.S. I've bid in plenty of on line "Reserve" auctions...and won very few...it has been my experience...that "Reserve" auctions tend to be for items that the seller wants too much money for and knows if he puts the minimum he will accept as the opening bid...he won't sell it!
 
I agree with most of what you said...I think the rule of thumb is, only bid once and only bid the absolute most you're willing to pay for that item. That way, you don't get cought up in a bidding war (sellers love bidding wars), if you win you didn't pay more than you wanted to, and if you get out bid, you're not upset and realize someone was willing to pay more than you were.
 
barcbsa has the professional approach. I would add just one thing, "snipe". Wait until the last 20 seconds then bid your carefully considered maximum. You don't want to give anyone time to react and counter bid. Don't get into auctions as a way to pass the time...it just makes things more expensive.
 
I dunno. Setting a reserve can be a way of measuring bidder interest in the item without having to take their bids if they are lower than you expected. Maybe you want $400, but you're not sure what the market will bear. Start the bidding at $200, and see where things go. Next time, if you're willing to sell in the area people are bidding, set the minimum in a range where people will bite. Otherwise pull the item and wait for another day. Remember, it costs money (at least on E-Bay) to do a reserve auction, even if the item doesn't sell. So the seller is spending money to find out what the market will bear.

As for sniping, many auction sites now extend the auction if they receive a bid in the last seconds, just to make sure that anyone who wants to bid can.
 
They want to sell the knife at ex amount of dollars which would be what they would sell it privately for, except with the auction everything bidded over the ask or reserve price is gravy.
Bob
 
Sounds to me auctions are not for you."Reserves" are the normal operating procedure of auction houses all over the world,its the name of the game.
 
It bugs the **** out of me when sellers have a reserve of several hundred to a thousand dollars and they start the bidding at $.01.
 
I bid what I am willing to pay right off the bat. If I get outbid then someone wanted it more than me. If I have the top bid and it doesn't meet the reserve then the seller wants more than I am willing to pay. I will not go higher.
 
I used reserves for a while, but found that you get fewer bids. Until Ebay changed it a few months back, any bid whiped out your Buy It Now price. So I would set an opener of $100 as reserve of $135 and a BIN of $150. Plus the 20 e-mails I would get asking what my reserve is, got very tiring.

Now that my values have been pretty much set, I just do an opening with no reserve.

The guys who start bidding at $0.01 with a reserve of say $500 are just trying to get their item listed as "HOT" by having alot of bids.

I just don't play those games. My knives are listed here first, then after 4 or 5 days I move it to auction. Funny thing is, at auction they sell for more than I was asking here 9 out of 10 times:D.
 
I haven't bid on anything on the auctions for approx 2 years. Before that was buying quite a bit of stuff. Then, there weren't nearly as many reserve auctions as there are now. I virtually never bid on a reserve item, just because the reserve was usually well over what I was willing to pay.

Didn't know it was called sniping. I thought of it as strategy. I set my max in my mind, and always bid only once, usually with about 15=20 seconds remaining. Only lost one bid I really wanted. I don't understand the problem with it. My bid was usually significantly higher than the showing bid when I placed my bid. I never saw any rules that one had to spend hours at each item one was interested in, making these little incremental bids. The high bidder can also snipe, if he/she wishes to. I've seen a couple bids taken by higher bids from the highest bid showing just before closing. If nobody else bid/tried to snipe, as I recall, the bidder got the item for the bid showing just before the end, didn't have to pay their higher bid. Seems to me that has something to do with the minimum incremental bids. But, have forgotten almost all of that.

I spent about half an hour on E-bay last week. Until I started using the search feature, it was downright aggravating, having to look through 20-25 POS items to find a real knife. Can't believe people spend much time doing that. Also can't believe that even with the POS that the sellers make much. There are so bleeding many of them, that their profit margins must be really low -- their prices are. Saw one goofy deal where a guy was selling something like 200 sets of 20 ginsu knives, for a penny. However poor the knives are, they're worth more than a penny. Who would bother taking the time to wrap and ship the crap for so little? Makes no sense to me.
 
I agree that the "reserve not met" can be annoying, but sometimes I suppose it works in the sellers favor.

I ignore it now because I usually "snipe" if I am physically able to do so. I have had at least three near-winning bids of my own get "sniped" by others, so I learned the hard way.
 
I've always figured you should just set your opening bid at the lowest price acceptable to you. Anything over and above that is a bonus.
 
Generally, I don't mind reserve auctions. However, sometimes you get the feeling that the seller almost has no intention of actually selling the item, because the reserve is so clearly higher than the actual value. It's sooo annoying when there's a good bidding war going on, and the real market value of the item is finally established, but the high bid doesn't meet the reserve. It's like - "Why did we even bother to bid on this item? The seller was just using us as appraisers."
 
Ditto on the "Reserve Not Yet Met" as a tad annoying. Especially when the starting bid is something ridiculous like $1.

However, the bidding strategies everyone has mentioned here are right on target. Always have an idea of how much you're going to pay and don't go past it. Remember, there's always another auction coming around the corner.

Even if the reserve is, say, $100. Don't let it discourage you from offering below reserve like $70. Remember, the seller has the option of accepting the $70 if their reserve isn't met.

The RESERVE NOT YET MET is nowhere as annoying as these idiots selling information on E-bay. A hypothetical example is, "NO RESERVE. $5 SPYDERCO..." Yet you read the seller's ad and he's selling information on where to get the lowest prices on Spyderco knives, rather than an actual knife. Arrrrrrrrrgh!:mad:
 
Sometimes people will use an outrageous reserve to find out what the going price on a knife might be. They have no intention of actually selling the knife the reserve is set so high.
Bid as high as you are willing to go ...if you don't meet the reserve the seller has the option to accept your bid.
You also have the ability to email the seller and tell him you didn't meet the reserve and would like to know what the reserve was and if the knife is still available. Sometimes they will tell you what the reserve was and sometimes even LOWER it, due to not having to pay the fees to relist/sell it. Remember tho that you have no way to complain if the deal doesn't go as intended (no feedback rating).
There are pro's and con's to sniping. Sometimes the auction site goes down...if it happens when the auction you wanted to bid on ends...too bad. Sometimes you bid the same as someone else...the first bid in gets it. And you won't have the time to bump your bid up the next increment.
 
I like auctions where the opening bid is set at $0.01 and the reserve is significantly higher. It gives the buyer a chance to tag the auction and track the activity under their account. I'll bid $0.02 and decide later whether I want to get into the game.
 
In the Custom Knives E-Bay Auctions;there is a seller{the Sandman 3 } who sells many knives at his Buy-it-Now price at the exact last second of his auctions;even if this bid is $20 over the previous bid.
For example -at 18:50:44hours "joe" bids $56.00 then
at 18:59:59 hours "dave" bids $75.00{the Buy it Now Price) & wins in the last second.Why didn't "dave" just bid $60.00 to win the auction?How can so many people seem to win in the last second at the exact Buy it Now price?
 
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