It's a question of eBay terminology. A 'reserve' is an undisclosed bid
amount, below which the seller is not obligated to sell the item.
The essential difference between a reserve and an opening bid, is that
the opening bid is disclosed to the potential buyers, but the reserve is
not. So for instance, in this case, if the TR6 auction was a "reserve
price" auction, eBay would accept bids above whatever was set as the
opening bid, but until someone bid the reserve amount, the auction would
simply show "reserve not met", meaning the seller is not obligated to
sell at that price. (In my experience, very few sellers are willing to
sell below their reserve, but it does happen sometimes.)
IMO reserve auctions are a means for a seller to drum up interest in
their auction. Typically, one might list a TR6 with an opening bid of
$1000 and a reserve of $5000. The theory is that then lots of people
will think "Wow, a TR6 for only $1000, I want that !", start bidding on
the car, and get "auction fever". Thus, the seller is more likely to
get his desired selling price than simply setting an equivalent opening
bid.
Randall
RJS_CPA wrote:
>
> Sometimes on higher end pieces on ebay, and currently with the $20,000 TR6,
> the seller indicates no reserve, yet there is an established opening price
> of $20,000? There are no bidders. Ebay will not accept a price lower than
> the established opening price, so I guess this no reserve TR6 has a reserve
> of $20,000.
>
> Is this correct?
>
> Thanks.
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