Car Buying and Reserves

stone7

Hello All,

I'm seriously thinking of buying my son a car off ebay in the next couple of weeks but there are a few things I'm not too clear on. It's difficult to explain, but here goes.

Imagine a seller has a car up for auction and has a reserve set at, say £2,000 (unbeknowns to me, of course). Assuming Bidder 1 is the current high bidder at £1,200, but I value the car at £2,100 and entered this figure as a snipe, would my bid reach the reserve price(£2,000) or would my bid just beat Bidder 1's bid, thus failing to reach the reserve. In other words, to reach the reserve, does there need to be at least two competing bidders.

Furthermore, many car listings give the option to "Check Vehicle Status" for a fee. Is this as good a check as those carried out by HPI or the AA?

Any other car buying tips gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

Blacksheep1979

yes if you bid over the reserve price the price jumps up to the reserve. If you aren't confident of the seller or the car yes its def worth getting an HPI check and depending on the price of the car/if you've seen it and don't know what to look for a AA type check.

socks_uk

I too am watching a car on ebay, that ends today, a 'W reg' Skoda Fabia.

I have already been for a test drive so I have seen the condition it is in, which, actually, I've seen better for the same price as the 'buy it now' price. There are plenty of them on ebay. This one happens to be only 25 miles away.

The 'buy it now' price is £2600 and the bids are currently at £1020. I don't think I'd pay more than £1800 because of the couple of dents and scratches so, what would happen if I put my maximum bid at £1800 and that was above the reserve, and what would happen if it was below the reserve? Incidently, I did ask the seller if he'd let me know the reserve prive so I could just go in at that bid and he said he'd rather not.

I have seen another Skoda (not on ebay) but the bloke's gone on holiday for a week. I haven't yet had a test drive but it's Nov 51 plate and, according to the seller, not a scratch on it. Slightly higher mileage but it's £2995, £300 more than my budget (I have £2700 cash sitting waiting to buy the right car). I know this isn't a reason to buy but this particular car but it also the last 3 letters in the number plate are my initials! Instant personalised number plate!!! You can tell I'm a woman!!

Thanks for any help on the reserved price problem.

CHR15

Say the reserve is £2000 and the current bid is £1200

If you bid £1800 on the car, the price displayed will be £1300

i.e It will only go up by the set increments. It will not show your Max bid.
You will also be informed that although you are the maximum bidder, you have not reached the reserve.

If you bid OVER the reserve, then blascksheeps answer is right.