Ebay ditches reserves

[thegreatescape]

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/marketing-au.shtml#2004-07-05085724

This is ebay.com.au, but theres a chance ebay.com will follow suit if it goes well (how you judge success is beyond me [unless ebay.com already has removed it]).


On Tuesday 10th August 2004, eBay.com.au will be removing the ability to use Reserves for all categories except Cars, Boats, Other Vehicles and Motorcycles. This change will be implemented from 12:00:01am AEST, Tuesday 10th August, 2004.

On the one hand it will stop the sellers that put needless reserves on low priced auctions, but at the same time there will probably be some higher starting prices where a reserve was used. I know for me seeing a reserve on an auction is a big turnoff, especially if its under $100 (i dont spend more than $100 at a time on ebay).

They are also replacing the NPB system with the "Unpaid Item process".

Thoughts ?

[SoulBlazer]

I like it. Let's hope the US follows suit. :D

[Lady Jaye]

I'm partial to the removal of the reserve. I don't like auctions with a reserve... I'd rather see the seller put a higher start price than a penny start price for an auction with a reserve.

[Cmosfm]

Im all for it! I hope it happens. :P

[Griking]

I never really used reserves much in my auctions so please tell me how this would effect listing fees.

For example, will it cost more for a person now to list an item with say a $50 starting bid and no reserve than it would to list the same item with a $.01 starting bid but a $50 reserve?

Price listing changes just makes me feel a little cautious that ebay wants to dig further into the sellers pockets.

[briguy578]

I sometimes use reserves on my auctions, usually in auctions for items that have a wide range of ending prices. The way it works right now is if you list something for, say, 1 cent with 49.99 reserve, you pay the 30 cent insertion fee plus a 1.50 reserve fee. if the item sells [i.e. goes over the reserve] you get the 1.50 back. What this means right now is that people who use reserves intellegently can save a couple bucks on auctions where they would usually put a high start price.

As a seller, I like reserves since I can build up "bid momentum" with a low start bid I usually wouldn't get, while still making sure my game or system or whatever isn't snapped up for a really low price.

As a buyer, though, reserves suck - especially since a lot of people put an insanely high reserve price on thier stuff.

[Kamino]

I will NOT bid on an auction with a reserve. end.of.story.

[Darth Vader]

It really depends on the item if I'll use a reserve. I think ebay just wants people to use the final value fee system rather than deal with all the reserve fees (my guess is they'll make more money this way, that's why they are doing it)

Danny

[Daria]

I think reserves have actually helped my mom win auctions (I'm using her as an example because it certainly hasn't helped me with video games :P) she'll see an auction for some doll she wants with a reserve and emails the seller asking what it is. Normally they tell her, and she'll bid just under the reserve, wait the auction out and then up it at the end. Since reserves scare away most people she's actually been able to win things cheaper this way then if the bid started low and people got into a bidding war over it.

But I guess the whole point of removing reserves is to help the sellers make more money, not the buyers to save some.

[Half Cab Leroy]

I will NOT bid on an auction with a reserve. end.of.story.
Same here.

I hope they do get rid of them.

[-hellvin-]

Sounds good....saves me time from finding auctions that will waste more of my money.

[number6]

I don't like reserve auctions myself. A lot of times I simply pass over reserve auctions because I can find the same items without a reserve most of the time. It's the items you rarely see on ebay that only really deserve a reserve price in my opinion.

Let me give an example of what types of auctions really should not have reserve prices. I always see this seller colecoworld! selling items on ebay and most of his auctions have very high reserves. He mostly sells those Coleco tabletop arcade games that are very popular and quite common on ebay. Here's a classic example of one of his auctions:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2541&item=5907800769


Now I see this particular game at least a half dozen times every week on ebay and they usually sell for around $60 especially if they are in decent shape. Since this item does not include the original battery cover I would value this one at about $40 tops. Now I am guessing his reserve price is somewhere around $40 which is not unreasonable, but why not just go with no reserve? The bidding right now is at $20.50 and I am guessing most potential bidders see that value and "reserve no met" and figure the seller wants way too much for this item and they move on. I believe he would get more bidders without the reserve and he may actually get more than he thinks it is worth. I have seen this seller have to relist the same item a couple of times before actually selling it. I wonder how much he paid in time/fees just to squeeze out a few more dollars? Like I said you can find this game pretty easy on ebay, here's the result of a current search:

http://search.ebay.com/electronic-handheld-hand-held-hand-held-tabletop-table-top-table-top-Donkey-Kong_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQsocolumnlayoutZ1QQ fromZR10QQsatitleZQ28electronicQ2ChandheldQ2Chand-heldQ2CQ22handQ20heldQ22Q2CtabletopQ2Ctable-topQ2CQ22tableQ20topQ22Q29Q20Q28DonkeyQ20KongQ29QQ sosortpropertyZ2Q26sosortorderQ3D2

Here's a mint condition DK :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4315&item=6106338288&rd=1

That seems like a better auction to me and let's see where it finally ends price wise. I bet it will go for quite a bit more than the reserve auction above. Like I said these games are very popular and sell well all the time so why use a reserve?


I make it a point to avoid colecoworld! even though he sells stuff I am interested in. It's so bad now I can tell which auctions are his from my search lists just by the high "Buy it now" prices he always seems to attach to these games. That's an entirely different matter though.

To this seller's credit he has started to do more auctions without a reserve, but I am still not interested in dealing with him. I remember when I first got started collecting on ebay back in January of this year and this user used to go by the ebay ID "0127eric" he had very rude auction listings that stated you needed more than a 10 feedback rating before you could bid on his items. I guess that turned me off.

[Hovoc]

ive only used a reserve for a car, thats it, nothing else ive put up on ebay used reserves