Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
A reserve price isn't going to affect me, one way or the other. It's been a while since I've bought much of anything on eBay, but I always sniped in the last seconds and had a sniping tool do it for me, meaning I'm not personally on line at the close.
That way, I see the auction, decide what it's worth to me, set up the snipe and walk away. If I win, fine; if I don't win, that's fine, too.
Since voters on eBay are irrational (i.e., they're influenced by what other people do), sniping is the only reasonable way to bid on any auction other than BINs. Early bids just jack up the price.
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I totally agree about the value of sniping, but if you read some of those article I linked, it gives some reasoning as to why reserve auctions might more often be a signal of a less experienced seller who might not deliver as smooth a transaction for you, even if you win.
Again, why risk it? Evidence suggests they perform worse, some bidders are put off, and none, to my knowledge, think "Oh goody, a reserve! I prefer bidding on those!" So why do it? What's the value? I'm still waiting for an argument as to why reserves do anything positive that listing at an acceptable starting price wouldn't also do. We have established that reserve prices are legal and don't kill anyone. And they probably do as good a job at keeping tigers away as this stone I found in my driveway. So what?