[78-L] eBay ranting

[Omar Facelli]

My 2 cents contribution to the thread:

         Way back into the early 2000's, I used to post all records 
at $9.99 starting bid with no reserve, no matter if a more or less 
common record or a high prized operatic blue zonofono or a 7" Berliner.
At first it worked well with the better records attracting more or 
less fair market prices.
But after some time, I've noticed that some regular bidders started 
to be more "selective" in both ways.
I mean:
Way 1) first bidding on only the better records, leaving behind the 
more common and thus making the relation "record posting - resulting 
profit" less and less attractive for a dealer which as myself doesn't 
have any income other than selling collectible stuff on-line. This of 
course, was a fair practice, which even though hurting my business I 
had no recourse against it other than trying to get rarer records 
which is, as a matter of fact, a difficult task, ten years ago, and 
much worst nowadays.
Way 2) Some of these bidders stopped bidding against each other 
letting records end in much lower prices and sort of dividing the 
auction block between each other. This unfair fact which happens much 
more than often on regular live auctions, brought me to the decision 
to lift up starting bids at higher figures in the hope that the more 
valuable records would be ended at least at low fair market prices. 
Believe me, I know several regular bidders stopped buying from me (I 
know some even got mad at me), being most of them unaware of this 
fact, and I know a small bunch was very aware of this. Would you bid 
against a fellow collector knowing that this could be avoided in 
advance by sending a short notice before the auctions ends?

I know a lot of you will jump at the assumption that most rarer 
records will find a 3rd or fourth interested party at auction. I've 
also learnt that most seasoned collectors already have most of the 
records they wanted in this life. It's quite an exception that a 
record gets fought by a bunch of interested parties, not a rule of 
thumb at all. So as a dealer who makes his living by selling rare 
stuff, you've got to be covered otherwise you're out of business just 
like that underselling the real rare and more wanted discs.

As I said, just my 2 cents.

Omar in Uruguay

--

At 14:16 19/06/2011, you wrote:
>A low starting bid could mean that more people jumping in and start to be
>competitive ...and a higher price could be realised....
>
>On Sun, Jun 19, 2011 at 4:31 PM, agp <agp2176 at verizon.net> 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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