eBay - explain reserves to me?

Posted by: Paul Hutchings on 06 June 2005

Not literally, obviously I understand what a reserve is, but what I don't understand is this:

Say someone lists an item with bidding starting at £25. There are zero bids and I bid £40 as that's the maximum I'm prepared to pay for the item. My bid and the "only" bid is listed as £25 but it states "Reserve not met".

What I don't understand is, let's assume the reserve was £30 - why doesn't eBay make my bid up to that amount?

As I see it if the auction runs out and there are no other bidders, I lose out even though I may have been happy to pay the reserve price?

cheers,
Paul

Posted on: 06 June 2005 by quickie

If you bid £40 and the reserve is £30 then you will be the high bidder @ £30 reserve met.

Paul.

Posted on: 06 June 2005 by Paul Hutchings

quote:
Originally posted by quickie:
If you bid £40 and the reserve is £30 then you will be the high bidder @ £30 reserve met.

Hmm.. so do I assume my maximum bid hasn't met the reserve?

I'd expect it would bid straight to my maximum in an effort to maximise further bids though?

Paul

Posted on: 06 June 2005 by quickie

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/proxy-bidding.html

Posted on: 06 June 2005 by Berlin Fritz

I see Devon nightlife hasn't changed much then ?

Posted on: 07 June 2005 by Andy Kirby

Basically, if your Highest Bid does not meet or beat the reserve price, eBay just puts in the minimum amount to beat the last bid, in your case the starting bid. e.g. if I put in £35, the bid will then show you as the current high bid at £36 Reserve not Met.

So you have not reached the Reserve price, if you had it would have zoomed up to that value.

I think it is simply an attempt to get people bidding, by keeping the 'headline' amount low, in the hope that someone will be encouraged to bid, see red and go nuts with their bidding, making everyone very, very rich.

My 2 cents worth

Andy