Put Some Allis Stuff For Sale...

Can you explain to me what the difference is between 'no reserve' and yet have a 'starting bid' posted ? I asked ebay many moons ago, don't remember what if anything they said.

The way I understand the term "reserve" (but by far I am no expert) is that there is a secret price that the item must bring in order for it to sell, if item doesn't bring that price it does not sell.  No reserve is that once a bidder bids the minimum starting bid the seller has put on the item, the item is going to sell to whoever is the highest bidder.  Basically when I sell something I just want to start it at the least I would take for the item, that way I don't have to fool around with paying extra to ebay for a "secret reserve", as ebay fees already eat me up as it is.

A reserve is just a way to gauge buyer interest. When a reserve is set, the starting bid means nothing. In fact, no bid under the reserve means anything, except to tell the seller if they have a market at some price.

GlenninPA wrote: A reserve is just a way to gauge buyer interest. When a reserve is set, the starting bid means nothing. In fact, no bid under the reserve means anything, except to tell the seller if they have a market at some price. When using a minimum bid, with no reserve price specified, the minimum bid becomes the "de facto" reserve, and it is met by the first bid. If you are trying to find out what buyers are willing to pay, and you set the minimum bid too high, you get no bids, no information, and have just wasted the listing fees.   If you are serious about selling an item, set the minimum at the lowest price you would accept, and let 'er rip. This will minimize the listing fees, and sell your item, if there is a market for it at your price.   Steve is using eBay as it was intended.

I agree with Glenn plus one more thing, with a secret reserve (which is also true in a "live" auction) it helps to create bidding fever,competition, whatever you want to call it. so people spend more than they want to

It will be interesting to see how the scoop sells. My theory is that items with a starting price close to or at market price rarely sell on eBay, but I may be all wet. People bidding at an auction, be it live or electronically, want the opportunity for a "good buy", even though the fever of competition sometimes drives them to pay over market price. We'll see.

I see at least 4 scoops in one of those pics of the scoop!  Ones painted and all prettyed up. I have never sold anything on ebay. Don't even know how or what their charges are for selling an item. The way I understand Steve is selling the scoop is that if someone bids $425 and no other bids above that are bid, it's sold for the $425 min. bid. No different than him setting it out by the road and putting a For Sale sign with the $425. Only difference is it sounds like he makes more money selling it out by the road for $425 than he would selling it on ebay for $425 minus ebay fees.

Edited by FredinInd - 20 Mar 2011 at 1:19am

Ebay fees are roughly 9% plus the listing fees, so you go from there.   Even if he sells it for 425, he's gonna loose 40 bucks off of the top.  Maybe even more if he accepts the money through paypal as they get a cut for the transaction too.   Ebay has it's pluses and minuses.   I agree with GBACBfan, it's fun to bid on things on ebay, that's half the battle.    But I can understand having something of value and with local pickup it's a crap shoot to find two bidders that both want to bid on it.   If you don't have at least two serious buyers, you can get screwed fast.   But Ebay has been on the rise compared to where it was a year ago, so I think that you would be safe.   It's just whether or not you want to take the risk.