[rescue] Re: Man, that's a _lot_ of Sun PROMs!

[Robert Novak]

On Wed, 23 Jan 2002, Kurt Mosiejczuk wrote:

> > http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1322587023
> 
> How can you say no reserve when the first bid price is $700?

Well, there's no reserve. Pretty simple, eh? You know the minimum amount
he'll sell for. If one bidder bids $700 and nobody else bids, the seller
is contracted to sell for that amount.

If he did a minimum bid of 1 cent and a reserve of $700, you don't have
much of an idea of what he wants for it. 

A reserve is when the seller (for whatever reason) doesn't want you to
know up front what the minimum amount s/he'll sell the item for. It's also
good for keeping a buy-it-now option open if you want a low starting bid
for publicity purposes but want the buy-it-now option to last past the
first bid. Without a reserve, buy-it-now goes away. 

Some buyers I've talked to think it makes more sense to put your reserve
as your minimum bid to be up-front with potential buyers. I tend to only
use it in buy-it-now settings, so I might do a minimum bid of $25, reserve
of $50, buy-it-now of $75... that way someone could still come along and
buy-it-now after the first bid or two.

--Rob

Robert Novak, Indyramp Consulting * rnovak at indyramp.com * indyramp.com/~rnovak
        "And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
           Maybe this year will be better than the last...." -- counting crows