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"eBay eejits"

You're selling something on eBay.

You have a starting price of - say - 50p, and also a reserve price - say £5

Now to me, it seems logical that the reserve is going to be larger than the starting price, yes?

After all, if your starting price was the minimum you were willing to accept for the item, you wouldn't have a reserve on it, would you?

So why do people bid - once only - at the starting price?

At least try a bid of £1, y'know?!

I'm selling the Xbox game Project Gotham Racing, with a Buy It Now price that I consider to be reasonable, and a reserve price that's even lower.

I think that's fair, as it's in mint condition, and would still cost £17.99 or more if bought new. Also, there are still some people on eBay trying to sell it at £25!

Anyway, one person has made seven bids, and it's still only up to £5.51. And I've just had an e-mail from them via the "Ask seller a question" link, and it says simply...

"the maximum i am willing to pay for the game is £6.50"

I'm sorely tempted to reply "Shame that" - but I won't.

I could get more than that for trade-in at Game!

m00tles, I sold Kerrang for £12

I stayed up until 4am to snipe an action figure.

I still lost.

I once stayed at the PC until 3:30AM in the morning to snipe a Dead Or Alive Volleyball Book, Zelda Windwaker Gift Set and Pikmin plushes, and each one went uo about 1000% in the final minute. Still got them though :)

Really, the best strategy is not to snipe, but to put your highest bid on as early as possible. That way if you are sniped and lose the item you know someone was willing to pay more than you were. Often just putting the minimum bid on an auction prevents a lot of people even watching it.

Kiriyama wrote:
> But then the majority of E-Bayers are stupid, bidding on an item while
> if they waited to the last 5 minutes, it'd get less bids. If only
> everyone thought the same way.

no cos most people will bid in the last 5 mins. Or even last min.

Ive seen stuff be at about $50 then rocket up to like $200 in last few mins.

I usually start all mine off at 99p no reserve except where it's an obscure item, if there is demand it will get bid up anyway.

Right now I'm just finishing the listings for all my retro consoles and games on Turbo Lister.

But then the majority of E-Bayers are stupid, bidding on an item while if they waited to the last 5 minutes, it'd get less bids. If only everyone thought the same way.

Ah yes, I totally forgot that.

Okay, so I'm the eBay eejit. :-(

ebay doesn't work where you put in a specific bid.

You put in what your maximum bid is and ebay does the rest. IE

on item you mentioned youd bid in a max of say £7

ebay puts in youre bid as 50p.

someone else comes along and puts their bid in at £6

Ebay automaticly and instantly bids, and because you put as higeher max in you automatically bid £6.50 outbidding the other person.

You can add to youre max at any time as well :)

I do that, just to get the ball rolling.

Why do people put reserves on anyway? If i see a reserve i usually dont bid.