Reserve met?

Sofa_Sogood

Just been wading through the beginners guide on eBay and was sidetracked by something I spotted that my o/h wanted to buy. It's got 20 hours left to run, but says 'reserve met'.

Does that mean the auction's finished?

Any advice appreciated.

P.S. I'm not trying to cut corners by asking - I couldn't find it in the guide.

Thanks.

divadee

That means that the sellers reserve has been met so the item will sell, not that the auction has finished. The time left clock will show how long it has left.

If it says reserve not met and the auction closed like that the seller does not have to sell the item.

Sofa_Sogood

Thanks divadee, it's a minefield over there

I'll let him know and keep my eye on the clock. I don't think he'll be successful, but it's worth a try, and people have to start somewhere don't they?

Cheers

Sofa_Sogood

I didn't register and neither did my husband, he was working late.

But, the reserve that was 'met' was about £300 less than the seller could have made. Is that just good luck on the part of the buyer, or should the seller have known?

If I'd have been a member I'd have been tempted to let the seller know, but is this going against the ethos of ebay?

Thanks again.

badgermonkey

You needn't worry about the seller - for one thing, that's their lookout! But really, the reserve is the LOWEST price an item will sell for. So if you had something that you knew was worth at least £50, you might set the reserve at £40 so it wouldn't sell for 10p. But putting a minimum price of £40 would deter initial bidders, so by setting a reserve, you can start the bidding off as low as you want, but if it finishes under the £40 reserve, it will not be sold.

This doesn't mean that once the reserve is met, it's sold; the auction continues till the end and may well end up going for much more.

Sofa_Sogood

badgermonkey wrote:

You needn't worry about the seller - for one thing, that's their lookout! But really, the reserve is the LOWEST price an item will sell for. So if you had something that you knew was worth at least £50, you might set the reserve at £40 so it wouldn't sell for 10p. But putting a minimum price of £40 would deter initial bidders, so by setting a reserve, you can start the bidding off as low as you want, but if it finishes under the £40 reserve, it will not be sold.

This doesn't mean that once the reserve is met, it's sold; the auction continues till the end and may well end up going for much more.

Thanks badger.

I only took an interest in it because I understood that particular market. He must have been happy with a reserve of £50, and I didn't follow it up to see if he actually got more, but as the same bidder put in 4 bids, I imagine he, the buyer, got it at the reserve price.

Seemed a bit of a mismatch, but looks like there was two winners - the seller because he met his reserve price at least, and the buyer, who got the item for a song

Thanks again, one of these days I'll register

Sofa_Sogood

I should add that until the auction was over, I didn't have a clue what the reserve was. I'm guessing it was the £50 that was 'met'?
There's no way of knowing until it's actually 'met' that it's reserved is there?

Who knows what it's set for apart from the buyer and seller? And does the buyer only know after they've won the auction what the reserve was? As I do now?

Or is that another of my dumb questions?

VeryTrying_2

If I bid, say, £20 for something, I'll see on screen that my £20 bid is the highest, but it will also show "reserve not met". Somebody else might bid £30, and then they'll be the highest bidder, but the screen will still show "reserve not met". So I have another go, and bid £50 - the screen shows I'm the highest bidder and also "reserve met". This means that the auction is now really on, and it's me against any other bidders.

All I know from that, is that the reserve was set somewhere between £30 and £50 - it might actually have been £40. Just bidding more than the reserve price doesn't mean I've won, because the other person can come back and bid £60 if they want. The end price might be somewhere over £100.

Now you've got a grip on reserve bidding, your next starter for ten is to explain, in not more than 500 words, how proxy bidding works. You can turn the paper over when I say "go" .....

Sofa_Sogood

VeryTrying wrote:

If I bid, say, £20 for something, I'll see on screen that my £20 bid is the highest, but it will also show "reserve not met". Somebody else might bid £30, and then they'll be the highest bidder, but the screen will still show "reserve not met". So I have another go, and bid £50 - the screen shows I'm the highest bidder and also "reserve met". This means that the auction is now really on, and it's me against any other bidders.

All I know from that, is that the reserve was set somewhere between £30 and £50 - it might actually have been £40. Just bidding more than the reserve price doesn't mean I've won, because the other person can come back and bid £60 if they want. The end price might be somewhere over £100.

Now you've got a grip on reserve bidding, your next starter for ten is to explain, in not more than 500 words, how proxy bidding works. You can turn the paper over when I say "go" .....

So I wasn't looking properly was I?

Sounds exciting though, wondering if you've won?

And 500 words? I'll have to go and have another search and find out what proxy bidding means first but I imagine it's someone bidding on your behalf, like eBay? Or some programme?

I'm off to have a look

Thanks for the reply, but don't start the clock for a couple of weeks yet though?

RACHIE77

lol! once you've found out wgat proxy bidding means and written your 500 words can you submit it to ebay to add to their site cos I remember thinking thie description was utter pants!! lol!!

Sofa_Sogood

RACHIE77 wrote:

lol! once you've found out wgat proxy bidding means and written your 500 words can you submit it to ebay to add to their site cos I remember thinking thie description was utter pants!! lol!!

I never thought to look at their description

Back to the drawing board (along with a few other 'to do' lists)