Well said, that is exactly my experience. I've sold 7 cars on eBay in the
last 5 years, and this is the way I've done it, with satisfactory results
for both buyer and seller, in my opinion. In only one case did the car go
way above what I thought it was worth, and that was a sort of "cult" car,
which must have had some value I couldn't appreciate (a 55 Coupe deVille,
which was bought by an Elvis impersonator.)
Dick Benjamin
----- Original Message -----
From: <RandalPark@xxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 5:25 PM
Subject: Re: IML: Bidding fever
> Steve,
>
> I attended the Ebay workshop that was held in our area a few weeks ago.
They explained why you are better off having a low reserve, or even better,
no reserve at all if you really want to sell the car. The item will say
"reserve not met" after the first bid, and that is the clue that the car may
not be priced right. Many bidders won't waste their time and/or energy if
they think that they have no chance of buying the car at a reasonable price.
>
> Without attending the workshop, I had figured out the psychology of the
auction a long time ago, through both observation and experience. The first
guy will bid if he thinks he might get a bargain. The next one will bid
because he doesn't want to see it go to someone else that cheap. After that,
bidding fever takes over. Each person that bids on the car starts thinking
that they want it. Pretty soon they are all thinking "he can't have that
car, I AM GOING TO BUY IT". Once you get about five bidders thinking that
way, anything is possible.
>
> Bottom line, none of this is going to happen if you don't capture the
interest and the possessiveness of the first bidder. You are taking a chance
that the car might sell too cheap, but I think that you can always cancel
your auction if after the first few days no one is willing to pay anything
for the car.
>
> Usually, if the car is any good at all, "bidding fever" will take it right
up to, and usually just over its true value.
>
> Paul
>
> In a message dated 3/8/2004 6:59:55 PM Eastern Standard Time,
imperial59@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > Placing a high reserve will often discourage bids, while allowing the
> > bidding to set the market will often result in a selling price that is
> > higher than expected.
> >
> > Paul
> >
> >
> > Why would a high reserve discourage bidders? One doesn't even know if
> > their bid is going to meet the reserve until after they have made the
> > bid. I have found that you have the best luck starting the opening bid
> > somewhere low (couple thousand) and set a reserve that you can live
> > with.
> >
> > Steve B.
> >
> >
> >
> >
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