Pet peeve of the day - online auction prices that are way below reserves

[RedFeather]

I cruise the auctions all the time. Sometimes I come across a gun that's going fairly low but hasn't hit the reserve yet. Come back at the end of the auction and it's hundreds of dollars up yet the reserve has not been met. What's the strategy/benefit of starting an auction at a dollar, etc, on a gun that's sitting with a high reserve? Not just real expensive guns, either. There's a couple of air guns on GB that are into their tenth or fifteenth iteration having never reached the reserve price which, honestly, has to be a good bit more than they are worth. Kind of a waste of time and space, and not in the theoretical, black hole sense.

[ezman604]

I'm with you,I just don't understand some folks logic when they place a listing. I've been on fleabay since 1998 (over 1300 transactions). I'm also registered on a couple of gun auction sites. If I have something to sell and need adollar amount out of it, I will set a reserve. If I set a reserve, I'll either set that as my opening bid or in the description, I will list what my reserve is so folks KNOW ahead of time what this item will cost as a minimum. Saves me a lot of headache and the bidders a lot of time and effort too. Dunno, that's just me.

Why hide what you need out of it? You think folks are going to just keep bidding to FIND out what the magic number is?? I sure don't. I'll bid up to a certain amount. If I don't hit their reserve, oh well, I'm moving on.

Dave

[Big_Bill]

I used to sell my stuff on eBay, and have watched the psychology behind this phenomenon !

Some hope that someone wants and needs the item beyond common sense !

Some hope that the bidders will take the bids of others as a personal insult, and in anger continue to up the bid, trying to make the auction a private fight between two or more bidders !

I have placed items that I believed had little interest, and started them off at a dollar, just to get them started, and these items raced far beyond my expectations, or belief !

You never know what someone will pay for anything, if they realy want it !

Bill

[patton123]

Rarely are you going to get a deal on the auction sites, I stay away from them.

I don't going  looking  for specific guns,  just when I come across a deal..... I buy.


Eric  

[RedFeather]

Bill, I don't mind "dollar auctions". Just one's like "Pre-64 Winchester Supergrade - Starting price $100", (reserve $2,500). These things can also be two-week runs. They repeat and repeat. Why not start that auction at $2000? Waste of time, otherwise, especially when the reserve is really high.

[airiscool]

Red,

There is an often used auction mind set that you should always start out with an extreamly low bid to get more bidders involved in  hopes they will feel "invested", get caught up and stay in because of the need to compete, which (holefully) will drive the price higher than if that auction started out at a higher bid.  

For folks who know actual fair values know better than to get cuaght up in that "start out low - stay in high" mind set.

I've been to a number of auctions where no one went for the opening bid on some items so the actioneer dropped it, got people bidding and that item went way beyond the first bid that no one would take. Sometimes a low starting bid gets folks bidding where a high starting bid, closer to actual value, wouldn't get a rise out of anyone.

One thing I've learned, if there is a reserve, there isn't going to be any bargan. Anytime I see an auction that has a reserve, that tells me someone's looking to make money and I pass up on it.

Paul.