Re: e-Bay question

Eventually, yes, but sometimes those high opening bids look too high and scare away bidders. Start low and hope you can hook one so he stays for the reserve.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

Different people have been discussing the psychology of bidding, hooking them when the price is low etc.

The dollars and cents of it, though, is that the seller has to *pay* to use a reserve. If you have a lot of stuff out there, that will nickle and dime you to death. Any extra bux you're making from using this psychology will more than likely end up with PayPal.

As a seller, I never use reserve; I just start the auction at the lowest that I'm willing to sell the kit for. As a buyer, I have noticed that reserves tend to be set too high pretty commonly; I generally don't bid on items with reserves.

Sorry, I agree with Steve on this--if someone has set a reserve, my bidding is an invitation to have mind games played on me. I don't bid on such auctions, ever. In effect, the bidder is bidding against me to get me to raise my price over the minimum and up to his reserve if still within my maximum--the supposed low-end bargain is inherently illusory.

If you can't tell me what you'll take for a minimum, why should I even think about it? Or maybe you wouldn't object to explicitly stating in caps:

PLEASE NOTE: THE PRICE I SET TO START THE BIDDING IS FALSE -> SEE IF YOU CAN GUESS WHAT IT REALLY IS.

Don't do it on my account--I won't be bidding anyway.

The only plausible reason I would have to make a bid on such an item would be to bid the minimum (necessarily under the reserve) as my final bid, in case the seller chooses to contact me later to sell it off-line for that price. I consider that result to be unlikely, and I'm not inclined to work outside the safeguards of the system anyway.

You might be more honest than the day is long, but without a personal track record to work from, I consider reserves a black mark for the seller. I guess I'm just picky--but then, I don't buy lottery tickets either.

Mark Schynert

The off-line deal has been one that eBay has been trying to come to grips with for a long time. It typically involves bidders and sellers contacting each other regarding an item that didn't sell (or the transaction fell through) to make an offer acceptable to both. EBay has cautioned against such actions, noting they do not have the protections of a standard eBay auction (such protections as there are).

EBay has finally recognized they aren't going to stop such dealing so they have decided, in the best spirit of true capitalism, to co-opt the process. They now have a new feature called "second chance offer." If you bid unsuccessfully on an item, the seller can make it available to you for your losing bid amount "because either the winning bidder was unable to complete the transaction or the seller has duplicate items for sale." Essentially it becomes a "buy it now" transaction if the bidder elects to take advantage of it. I was outbid recently for a Strombecker catalog but got a "second chance" offer and bought it for the amount I bid. Each party leaves feedback just like a normal transaction.

I'm sure it won't stop all off-line deals but it will cut down on them.

Matt Mattingley