Removing Reserve??

[gazza]

We are toying with the idea about removing the reserve price for normal auctions (dutch auctions dont have reserve anyway). In this way all auctions will have to start at the minimum price the seller is willing to sell for.

Anyone have any comments on this.

Thanks
Gazza

[damian_steele]

I think that it is a great idea.

I dislike reserve price auctions anyway and have said for some time that auctions should begin at the lowest acceptable price.

[stitchysyl]

I can't see the point of a reserve price...its not as if you can win the auction if you bid under the reserve I am put off by reserve auctions for that reason.

I think normal auctions, BIN and fixed price auctions are all that are needed....

although perhaps a 'make me an offer' option ?..or do we already have one of those...

[ladylauraac]

Yep. Get rid of the reserve. Its not needed in my opinion.

[buttons-and-bows]

Yes I'm with you all on this as well. get rid of it.

[MyHeartsMyFlowers]

I don't like the idea at all and hate it that eBay did just this a few years ago.

This is supposed to be an auction site and part of an auction is the option of a reserve price. It protects the value of an item for sellers and encourages bidding (I know it is a psychological thing, but it is a traditional marketing technique accepted worldwide) .

One of the reasons the number of auctions on eBay has gone down whilst the number of Buy It Nows has gone up, is because the option of a reserve of less than £50 was removed. As a result more business sellers (many unscrupulous) started selling on eBay and now Ebay is trying to redress the imbalance this caused - that's why so many sellers are over here now.

This also means less bargains are to be had by buyers, which is surely one of the main attractions of sites like eBid and Ebay.

I have lots of friends who ask me about listing on eBay things they own, but would like to sell on - lower value things like clothes, baby items etc.

I tell them they can't put a reserve on their things on eBay and they should try selling on eBid instead - of course, none of them have even heard of eBid. Some have sold things on here.

We want to encourage not discourage sellers to come here so that buyers can find what they want.

How many of us started out selling our own things?

I know we don't want the site dominated by second hand things, but removing the option of setting a reserve will mean more BINs and a lot of buyers love bidding for bargains.

On this ID all my items at the moment are BINs because I buy to resell and need to protect my price, but on my other ID where I have a mixture of auctions and BINs, if a buyer asked me how much the reserve was on an item, I'd tell them without hesitation.

Please don't remove this option - don't turn this site into another eBay.

[auctiongroup]

the point of a reserve is the lowest price your willing to sell for, so why not start the auction at that price????

always thought reserve prices where a bit pointless so yes get rid of them.

the reason feebay got rid of it for lower priced items was for fee avoidance, a 1p start auction cost less than say starting it at £25, even with the charge for the reserve. as there are no fees on ebid depending on what type of extras you choose it dosent make a difference to the cost of listing wether you have a reserve or not.

[HannaHolly]

I personally don't like reserves on auctions, however i don't see what benefit there would be in removing the option for sellers who do like to use it?.

We have so many 'in progress' glytches and problems still to be fixed, ( missing 'busy' and closed' auctions, AAL problesm with paid/unpaid etc..) I would prefer to see those isses resolved first rather than make changes which have no obvious benefit to the site.

Another thing to consider is some sellers may have chosen to pay for platinum membership recently based on the features then available, since that time we have had the minimum auction length changed to 3 days.

So my vote is - keep as many options as possible as this encourages more sellers to sell here.

[Anichka54]

Yes please, yes yes yes & yes again, i hate them with a vengeance. er, did i forget to say, yes please, get rid, please, please, please.
Just in case you're not sure how i stand on this matter.
Please get rid of reserves.

[lofty100e]

I also don't understand the need for a reserve price; what is the problem with starting the bidding at your lowest acceptable price?

Yes they have reserve prices in the "real world". I may be mistaken but doesn't the bidding start at the reserve price; and if there are no biddders the item gets withdrawn.

Get r