What is the point of a reserve on ebay!

Sorry but am I being dumb here or what.

If you are going to put something on ebay with a reserve, why not just put the starting bid at that. I did it once and wondered why i did it. So, to those of you that sell, why do you do it?

Maybe I am just not seeing the logical side to it...?

I like to put a reserve on, if the item is of a high value.

That way i can start it at a low price and get potential buyers interested, only to later smash their hopes and dreams with a high reserve.

I did put a reserve a few times at the start, if I put anything on now, I start at the price I would have put on as a reserve, think it works out cheaper too.

Originally Posted by plowsie

Sorry but am I being dumb here or what.

If you are going to put something on ebay with a reserve, why not just put the starting bid at that. I did it once and wondered why i did it. So, to those of you that sell, why do you do it?

Maybe I am just not seeing the logical side to it...?

i agree........... its also cheaper to advertise somthing for ?500 with no res, than it is to advertise it for ?1 with a ?500 res.

Like Mike says i'm sure you get charged for a reserve aswell....

If you put it in at a starting price, even if its high at least people know what the price is. Putting in a reserve, people don't know how high this is and probably won't be that interested in buying.

I've always used starting bids to price a minimum price I want.

1st thing everyone asks, 'What's the reserve on it' .

There are different ways of looking at it.

If you have an item for sale at the starting bid is only 99p this will encourage bidding on your item as everyone is hoping to get that item at a steal of a price. But you want to ensure you don't sell it for peanuts so put a reserve price on it to protect yourself.

Having a reserve and a low start price could encourage people to have dip bids. As in, they will put a bid in for another pound just to see if that hits the reserve, thus helping your item reach the reserve.

Having no reserve but a high start price will segregate those that are only interested in getting something dead cheap. They will already see that it is not such a bargain and continue looking elsewhere. This means that your item is not showing much interest and put potential bidders off thinking others are not bidding because there something is wrong with the item.

Swings and roundabouts really.

i think bigapes got it there lol

best and cheepest way to sell any item is at 99p starting price with no reserve. then get a friend to bid on ur item in a tactical way to encourage a bidding war, and then for your mate to finaly bid up to what you would let it go for the least. free reserve!!