Should I tell my reserve price?????

scaldyflash

I am a relative newcomer to Ebay and have just put on something quite expensive with a reserve of £200. I have had 3 emails asking me what my reserve is. I cannot think of a reason not to tell them what the reserve is, can anyone tell me a reason why I shouldn't tell them. Many thanks

Scaldyflash

Rubber_Duck_4

You can do. Some people just ask to see if they can afford it and if it is worth bidding on.

The other option is to say no and just ask them to try their luck. If you do that they might put in a bid higher than the reserve and you might end up getting more for it.

If they know the reserve price they could hold out till near the end of the auction if the reserve is not met and then just bid that amount.

It's really up to you but I would suggest if you tell one person you should add it to your description so everyone knows and no one has an advantage.

I personally wouldn't bother just ask them to bid and try their luck.

steve_r123

If you do tell them, they will probably just come back to you and ask you to sell it to them and end the auction early for say £150....... :rolleyes:

I wouldnt bother telling them, if they want it then they should bid on it

Also, they may just wait until a few seconds before it ends and bid £201.... :mad:

smartie1976

Indeed. personally I would leave it be and see what happens. And don't let anyone "make you an offer".

or possibly say £220 and then people who try that last minute snipe bid will do the £220 thing, and you at least hit your £200+profit then

AMILLIONDOLLARS

Had that same thing happen to me this week. I told them the reserve, but they never bid. In fact it never reached its reserve, so sold it to the highest bidder on Second Chance as they were only £4.00 out!!

But next time I don't think I'll tell, as it put me on the spot, if they really want it they should put in their best bid. Besides it pushes the bidding up to an acceptable level.

Good luck

AMILLIONDOLLARS

Smartie

Totally agree with you!!

highguyuk

Ive actually heard it is against Ebay policy to tell people the reserve price. Could be wrong though...

smartie1976

I haven't seen anything which says to that effect, but I stand to be corrected.

scaldyflash

smartie1976 wrote:

I haven't seen anything which says to that effect, but I stand to be corrected.

Just had another look around the 'help' section on Ebay, still can't find anything ruling it out.
Anyway I've decided to take ye're good advice and tell them to just bid. I suppose people should only bid that which they are willing to pay anyway and if that doesn't reach the reserve then maybe they should walk away !!

Thanks all

Scaldyflash

skintchick

Personally, I think it depends what it is.

A while a go I was buying a digital piano, which are expensive, and in order to work out what to bid on first and what to move onto later, I needed to know if the reserve was way out my price range.

Clearly I couldn't bid on two at once in case I won both, but if the reserve was over £600 then I knew I wouldn;t win it anyway, so it helped me work out what to bid on.

I don't see why you wouldn't tell someone the reserve if it is on something like that, where they are trying to choose between a few items and deciding what is in their budget.

Also, most eBayers will bid later, as bids only encourage other people to push the price up, especially wiht items such as pianos where most buyers are newbies who don;t understand how it all works.

finc

highguyuk wrote:

Ive actually heard it is against Ebay policy to tell people the reserve price. Could be wrong though...

This isn't true. The reserve price thing is only there to ensure the item doesn't sell for less than you want (assuming it's over £50). You can tell the price and I always do to anyone who asks but this is up to you.

I always ask what the reserve price is on an auction as I want to see if it's worth my time making a bid on it or if I should move onto another item.