Reserve Tips for Sellers
As a seller, if you didn't read the set of tips above for bidders and buyers, go back and do so now. The drawbacks for prospective bidders on reserve price auctions are precisely what make reserve price auctions less desirable for sellers as well. The consequences of reserve use for sellers are not to be taken lightly.- Fewer bids and lower closing values. Because of the uncertainty and hassle involved in reserve bidding, reserve auctions draw fewer (and thus lower) bids than similar non-reserve items. The act of trying to "protect" your investment by setting a reserve price may paradoxically therefore actually reduce its sale value even if reserve is ultimately met.
- Fewer sales overall. It's common sense but it bears repeating: the purpose of a reserve price is to cancel the sale of an item for which bids did, in fact, exist. In the process, setting a reserve price also decreases the total number of bids your items are likely to receive. In practice, this means fewer sales overall and lower average prices, for which you actually pay a fee premium (since setting a reserve price incurs a fee).
- Higher non-paying-bidder rate. Reserve auctions can surprise buyers that place a proxy bid, see that they didn't meet your reserve, and move on to someone else's auctions. Two or four or even seven days later when the listing ends and they've turned out to be the winning bidder in a reserve-met auction after all, they may inform you that they've bought elsewhere in the meantime and balk at completing the transaction, an instant non-paying bidder problem.
Because of these drawbacks, before setting a reserve price for an auction you should always ask yourself whether in this case a similar but better outcome can be achieved by checking current market value for your item using a "completed listings" search and then setting a higher starting bid or a buy it now price if you find the market value to be high enough for your tastes.
Reserve Auction Questions and Answers
Q: I was the high bidder on an auction and the reserve was met. What now?A: Complete the transaction just as you normally would with any other auction and seller. When a reserve auction ends with a high bidder and reserve met, it behaves just like any other eBay auction.
Q: An auction I bid on is over and the reserve wasn't met. What now?
A: If you're the high bidder on an auction that has ended and the listing shows that the reserve price was never met, you're likely out of luck. The seller is not obligated to sell you the item in question at any price, much less the closing price of the auction. You are free to contact the seller and request that they send you a Second Chance Offer to complete the sale after all (any other method of competing the sale would violate eBay rules), but in practice this rarely happens.
Q: I bid on an auction. It's still going, but my bid didn't meet reserve. What now?
A: Now you wait. Because the auction is still live, you can't be sure what other bidders are going to do and how the auction may play out in the end. Depending on what others do, you could still end up the high bidder and meeting reserve when the auction ends, even if that isn't the case right now. If that happens, you are obligated to complete the transaction and make the purchase, so don't bid or buy elsewhere until the reserve auction on which you've already bid ends.
Q: One of my listings has finished with a high bidder and reserve was met. What now?
A:Wait for payment from your high bidder and deliver the item just as you normally would. When reserve is met, there is no difference between a reserve auction and any other for the seller.
Q: One of my listings has finished but reserve was not met. What now?
A: You have three basic choices about how to proceed. First, you can simply decide that you don't want to sell the item after all and move on to other sales and items. Second, you can take another crack at selling the item by relisting it (though you may want to consider lowering and/or removing the reserve price the second time around, since it didn't work out so well the first time). Third, you can send a Second Chance Offer to the high bidder, even though reserve wasn't met, and sell the item to them at the price of their maximum bid.
