Guppy
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 4,339
- Location
- Cleveland, OH
How is that ebay's fault? If you're $200 over the highest bid, how do you not have the high bid? If the reserve is higher than that, then the seller has over valued their listing.eBay should REALLY stop ruining peoples hopes and dreams with the "Reserve" price thing! It's beyond stupid. It just doesn't do anything for the potential buyer thus harming the seller even as once everyone gets tired of stabbing in the dark, people will just slowly give up and back away. I've been the highest bidder on this auction a few times already but never actually won anything because of the reserve price. What this means is that I literally CANNOT buy the thing! My bid was $200 higher than what the item ended on but that doesn't mean a thing because the other bidders didn't push the price nearly high enough for my bid to have any effect.
I understand that the seller is reluctant to let go of an item for a ridiculously low amount but the reserve is the worst possible way to go about it. Just set up either a starting bid at whatever you're comfortable letting your item go or make a bin. I don't understand why is eBay encouraging this option as it's the worst possible way to go about doing business.
Ebay upcharges for listing with a reserve price, so it's expensive to find out what people think your item you didn't really want to sell is worth.
You're right that a higher starting bid is better, but high starting bids don't attract a lot of bids, and with sniping people don't bid much on low open listing either.