reserve

Anthillmob

i was looking at some things on ebay earlier and nopticed a lot had not met their reserve. what happens in cases like this? say the reserve is £100 but the highest bid is £35 then does the wining bidder get the item or not? if not then whats the point in bidding? i dont understand.

Moglex

No the winning bidder does not get the item.

The point of bidding is much the same as normal. You bid what you are willing to pay. If that is less than the reserve you don't get the item. Rather in the same way that if you don't put in the highest bid you don't get the item.

Where's the problem?

Anthillmob

cheers, there isnt a problem i just dont get it. mind i spose as the reserve is hidden then you find out after so i guess that answered my question all along.

thankyou!

frivolous_fay

Reserves aren't state secrets: there's nothing to stop you asking nicely what the reserve is. It's what I do to save me wasting my time bidding.

Remember the minimum reserve is £50.

rose_sparky

If an item doesn't reach it's reserve is the reserve price shown at the end of the auction?

viru.doshi

I only ever use a reserve when i want to sell something and want to make sure it doesnt sell for something less. Like if there's no reserve and the item sells for 99p when its worth £50 the seller still must sell as you entered a contract by bidding, and the seller by listing the item. If they refuse to sell you can legitimately complain to ebay.

Marvo434

One point worth mentioning on reserves though ..
If the reserve is, say, £100 and the current bid is £10 and you bid a maximum of £105 then your bid will show on the lot as £11 BUT when auction ends (assuming no other bids) you will win it for £100.
For example: I recently bought an item that had a reserve. I asked nicely (a mobile number was listed) and was told the reserve was £150, a very fair price (it was a wood lathe). My highest bid was shown at the end of the auction as £111 but I won it for £150 as the max I had entered was slightly in excess of the reserve.

Thefunkygibbons

^^^ are you sure?

Last time, I bid on a reserved item, it did not work like that

soolin

Marvo434 wrote:

One point worth mentioning on reserves though ..
If the reserve is, say, £100 and the current bid is £10 and you bid a maximum of £105 then your bid will show on the lot as £11 BUT when auction ends (assuming no other bids) you will win it for £100.
For example: I recently bought an item that had a reserve. I asked nicely (a mobile number was listed) and was told the reserve was £150, a very fair price (it was a wood lathe). My highest bid was shown at the end of the auction as £111 but I won it for £150 as the max I had entered was slightly in excess of the reserve.

I'm not sure this is correct. As soon as a bid is entrered that exceeds the reserve the 'reserve not met' statement disappears and I thought that the bid showed at the highest amount needed to reach the reserve?

Reserves can be very expensive as well as if the bids never meet the reserve you have had to pay out for listing costs, gallery etc plus the hefty reserve fee. If th eitem sells though the reserve fee is returned, so this means the sellers are often very happy to disclose their reserve rather than risk item not selling.

Personally i never use a reserve, I just start the item at the minimum I will take.

Soo

Moglex

soolin wrote:

Personally i never use a reserve, I just start the item at the minimum I will take.

That always seems a far more sensible approach to me.

In the atmosphere of a real auction, a reserve may well serve some purpose as real auctioneers like to be able to start at a very low price to get items moving.

The justification on ebay seems less realistic. It seems to be designed for idiots (idiot bidder, that is), who don't know whether they want something until they see someone else bidding on it first.

The sort of people who enter a bidding war some days before the auction completes, only to loose the item to a last second snipe.