[geeks] eBay question

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm at mendelson.com>
>Date: 2007/09/05 Wed AM 12:06:28 CDT
>To: geeks list <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: [geeks] eBay question

>I'm saw a discussion on rec.radio.shortwave about a radio for sale.
>I think this point has been brought up here before, so I thought I
>would post the question here too.
>
>What struck me is that it's listed as minimum bid of $400, a BIN of
>$800 and a hidden reserve. I know that's common on eBay, but isn't
>that false advertising?

I've done this, one reason I used to do this was that it keeps the BIN price available even though lower bids have been entered (or at least, it used to work that way). I wanted to keep the BIN price available after someone bid (but didn't meet reserve bid amount).

>If you bid $400, and you were the only bidder, will you get the radio?
>The seller through eBay is IMHO falsely advervtising the radio.

Depends on what the reserve is - probably not, but the seller could be stupid and have selected too many options when they entered the item for auction, not understanding how eBay works...

Lionel