[Discussion] Reserve Price

[Smoot]

Many Auctions have a reserve price. (including my own although i rarely do auctions) I would just like to make it known that a reserve is just a price that once met the item is guaranteed to be sold.

I always welcome offers under the reserve, but of course reserve the right not to sell unless the reserve has been met.

bids under the reserve price are a very good indicator of interest so very useful.

that being said, if your really interested in an item, bidding for substantially under a reserve price does not give you a very good chance of the seller deciding to sell the item.

If you would like to not have an bids under a reserve in a thread, its always best to have a Start price in place of, or in addition to a Reserve price.


I just felt like this should be discussed, as i think there is often confusion and sellers seem to take offense when a good offer is made but happens to be under the reserve (even when there is no start price)

 

[Scribbles]

Yeah I agree @Smoot you defined it perfectly in my opinion.

 

[Marshall Welsch]

Thank you for this, @Smoot

 

[BrianFreud]

To be honest, I consider the terms interchangable, at least with regards to my auction, and as it interpreted by most (all?) of the live auctions around the game. Those auctioning through me set the reserves. I've had many folks send me ICQs about this or that reserve being too high, with long explanations about why the reserve is too high - yet in nearly every one of those cases, the item ended up selling at or above the reserve.

What I do sometimes find, though, is that new items drop, and the reserve is just crazy high, esp when compared to the other 7 posts for that same item. In such cases, it's not a "reserve", but rather a "in my dreams"; if someone is looking to sell the thing regardless, then make the reserve realistic, instead of posting a huge reserve only to end up accepting half that amount. I generally don't offer if I consider the stated reserve too high, whereas I might be tempted to make an offer if the reserve was realistic... and more/multiple offers is never a bad thing for the seller.

 

[Zuckuss]