Posted by Clint Dixon on Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 8:07PM :
In Reply to: Re: whats the belt pulley reserve doug? posted by Dave Speed on Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 7:18PM :
That does not suprise me. After all, where is the incentive to keep a reserve secret? All a reserve does is assure that the seller does not get burned and have to sell something below the cost they have in it because people either didn't see the auction or were not interested in it for some reason. The sellers that have quoted a reserve price to you are banking on the chance that they may score one more bidder - you. Some people will not bid if there is a reserve price because they are really not sure if the item will even ever sell. Most of the vendors that carry the items that I bid on do not have a reserve. Just a starting bid. This is in effect a reserve in itself, and may at times be quite high. High ticket items just look better to some potential bidders if a reserve is set that allows for a low starting bid. Kind of like a real auction. An auctioneer may try to start bidding off at $20.00 on an item that is worth $30.00. But most of the time no one will start bidding untill he lowers it to say $5.00. Then, the bidding usually takes off. Personally I like auctions. A little competition, strategy, suspense. And even coming home with a $1.00 item makes you feel like a "winner". ;^)
Clint
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