[78-L] ePoo Reserve Prices (was Q.R.S. discs)

[Cary Ginell]

eBay gets a cut whether you have a high minimum or a high reserve bid. The only ploy you can use to avoid eBay taking a cut is (and don't quote me) to put a superhigh reserve on the record so you know it won't sell. I did this some years ago with an old Beatles vinyl lunch box from the UK. I was interested in finding out how much it was worth, so I put a $9.99 minimum bid on it and a reserve price of $50,000. I knew that no matter what people bid, no one would win it. When the auction closed, I had several dozen unsuccessful bidders. I merely emailed them after the auction closed and said that nobody reached the reserve price; I'll take the best offer. Some of the bidders each emailed me their top bid, all of which were higher than their unsuccessful bids. I simply took the highest one and conducted the purchase separately. That way, eBay did not know that the sale was concluded and thus didn't get a piece of the action, other than the original listing fee. They know that this activity goes on and tell you in their rules that it is forbidden to sell an item privately that has been listed but didn't sell , but I don't think that is legal and there is no way to enforce this. I did this recently with an expensive item and it worked. Since the sale was outside of eBay, I didn't have to complete the sale using PayPal and asked for payment via a postal money order. That way, I avoided PayPal taking a hefty cut out of the purchase as well. This can get troublesome if you do it too often, but for high ticket items, it can save you $100 or more. I think I saved $150-200 on this transaction.

Cary Ginell

> Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 10:05:23 -0500
> From: neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: Re: [78-L] ePoo Reserve Prices (was Q.R.S. discs)
> 
> I think the purpose is to post the thing with a low bid and therefore 
> low posting fee. The reserve price is becasue the seller wants a lotta 
> dough but doesn't want to share any more than necessary with ebay.
> 
> Understandable.
> 
> joe salerno
> 
> 
> On 6/19/2011 9:31 AM, agp wrote:
> > I have never quite understood the purpose of reserve price. If that
> > is the minimum you are willing to sell for, the make it your minimum
> > bid starting price. Past that I see it as a time waster.
> >
> > Here's a case in point: A recent listing of the Canadian pressing
> > (and rare as all hell) Decca 45 of the Beatles' My Bonnie (Decca
> > 31382) was listed with a starting bid of 99 cents, with a reserve. By
> > end of auction time it went to $4,500. It didn't sell, because even
> > at this price, the reserve was not met. The record was then relisted
> > with a minimum bid of $14,500 (ten grand more). Generally speaking,
> > this item has sold for about $5,000 in the past. So what was the
> > point of the reserve, in particular if it was as high as 14K.
> >
> > There was a similar go round with a rock'n'roll 78 that generally
> > commands a price of around $50. Highest  bid that came in was about
> > $45. It never sold, and the guy still re-listed it and still used a
> > reserve, as it didn't sell the second time around either
> >
> > T
> >
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