Reserve price again

[pjaj]

It would be a fundamental flaw on any site of a seller could change the reserve price on a listing after someone had bid. The vast majority of sellers set their reserves at the minimum they would accept for an item. Those that don't will loose sales.

I'm not so sure. In "real" auctions, the auctioneer uses his discretion regarding reserves; if the highest bid is nearly there he may well accept it. Similarly, if the final bid is, in his opinion, too low he may well pass the item as unsold.

How about if the highest bid was, say, £28 and your reserve was £30. Would you like the option to accept that bid after all, or do you want to re-list with a lower reserve and the chance that your potential buyer had gone elsewhere?

[bykimbo]

I'm not so sure. In "real" auctions, the auctioneer uses his discretion regarding reserves; if the highest bid is nearly there he may well accept it. Similarly, if the final bid is, in his opinion, too low he may well pass the item as unsold.

How about if the highest bid was, say, £28 and your reserve was £30. Would you like the option to accept that bid after all, or do you want to re-list with a lower reserve and the chance that your potential buyer had gone elsewhere?

I don't think comparisons with "real" auctions work. The mechanics are too different. With real auctions it all happens on the spot, in a matter of minutes, and everybody can see what's happening.

[JaBek1]

I don't think comparisons with "real" auctions work. The mechanics are too different. With real auctions it all happens on the spot, in a matter of minutes, and everybody can see what's happening.

You are correct, Kim. The computer program cannot use it's discretion with regard to accepting bids. What can you expect? It only thinks in 0's & 1's.

Dennis

[marschenegger]

Example:

I bid on your widget and see reserve not met
I go buy widget elsewhere
Now you tell me I won your widget

That would not happen. The seller would never be allowed to set the reserve price below the high bidder's maximum. On another auction site where sellers are allowed lowering the reserve price after bids are received, the high bidder would still have to make another bid to surpass the reserve and thus be liable to purchase the item. If you never make another bid, you would never be obligated to buy the item no matter what.

Coincidently, eBid's reserve price auctions use the first-bid format, meaning that whatever you bid is the posted high bid until the reserve price is met, and then the proxy bidding system kicks in to make the auction a second-bid format (i.e. the high bidder wins the auction at one increment over the runner-up's bid). So having a flexible reserve price would work smashingly on eBid given that it could not be used by the seller to "flush out" the high bidder's price if it is under the reserve. But obviously it would never work as some people are too scared to bid on reserve price auctions