asking for the reserve price on an item

TornadoTom

Can anyone give me a valid reason why some sellers won't tell you the reserve price on an auction.
I don't get it
What have they got to lose by revealing the reserve price?
Tom

rose_sparky

I don't understand their reluctance either.

I'd be inclined to message back and say "oh well, if I don't know the reserve I'll have to look elsewhere".

TornadoTom

The item I was looking at was a car. If I knew the reserve price, I could do some research to see if it was worth bidding on or not.
The seller claims it's £3000 cheaper than the dealers forecourts....but, how can you tell if he wont reveal the reserve price ?
I suspect he may be dodgy.......just like everyone who wont reveal the reserve price !

Inactive

This is an auction, like any auction, sellers don't have to reveal their reserve, nothing at all dodgy about it.

Just keep bidding to your highest price, you will soon find the reserve price.

frivolous_fay

Vote with your feet imo.

Reserves aren't state secrets. I don't waste my time bidding for something I may have no chance of winning. Why bump up the price for someone who plays games with potential bidders?

nightswimmer

TornadoTom wrote:

Can anyone give me a valid reason why some sellers won't tell you the reserve price on an auction.
I don't get it
What have they got to lose by revealing the reserve price?

I was *really* surprised when I first read on this forum that it was considered normal practice to tell people what the reserve price is if they asked.

I'd presumed that people would want to keep it secret in order to try and get a higher price. For example, if a brand new item worth £100 has a reserve of £50, if I didn't know the reserve I might bid £80, but if I knew the reserve was only £50, I might lower that bid to nearer the reserve price.

Having read people's comments on the subject though, I now see that this doesn't actually make sense, and that it's perfectly ok to reveal the reserve price, especially because you might attract more bidders. However, if I hadn't of read the comments on here, I would still be left with that initial presumption, and if I did ever sell something using a reserve price, I would have been very reluctant to tell anyone what it was.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I would imagine that a good number of people who don't reveal the price, may simply not realise that there is no harm in doing so.

samanthaknd

i would be reluctant to set a reserve, if it was something expensive id just do a BIN. or start the bidding a little higher but that doesnt always work.

stone7

I know I'll get flamed for this suggestion, but if you enter a bid of, say £100,000 and the reserve was, say £3000, you will be the highest bidder at £3000. Then go and cancel your £100,000 bid claiming that you have entered the wrong amount in error, having neglected to enter the decimal point. Re-enter your revised bid of £1,000, which will obviously fall well below the reserve. This is a banned practice, but as a one off purchase like a car, I would do it.



[reaching for flame proof underpants]

Sinope_2

People wouldnt say what the reserve is as bidders would then just bid a tiny amount on top.

TornadoTom

I'm not saying they should reveal it to everyone on the auction...just privately to those who ask.
I could be bidding up at £1000 a bid trying to get to the reserve price.....I might have to make 40 bids before I get anywhere near that...it would be ridiculous, might even look like shill bidding.
In all fairness...the auction doesnt start until the reserve is met.
Tom