What I Recently Learned About Ebay Sellers

[raging.dragon]

I agree auctions that use the 'Reserve' pricing is definitely a TIMEWASTER.

 

 

From a seller's point of view, the reserve is a necessity on pricier items to prevent someone 'stealing' the item because there is no competition for it. Some sellers create faux identities so they can put in their own bids to bump up prices, but that is strictly verboten.

 

I agree that not knowing what the reserve is isn't very satisfactory to bidders, particularly the ones like me that bid their maximum at the last possible minute. The alternative that I like better (and I'll be using soon as I am in the process of selling some old watches) is to put in a BIN (but it now) price and allow offers. That way, no one can grab a valuable item for a silly low bid just because you screwed up and had the auction ending at the same time as some sporting event, and it allows a dialogue between seller and potential buyers with offers and counter offers, aware always that until there is a sale, anyone can swoop in and grab it by agreeing to pay the BIN price. Makes life more interesting and protects the seller.

 

Ebay allows sellers to set a minimum starting bid. The secret reserve price just wastes the buyers time. The only reason I can see for a seller using a reserve price instead of a minumum starting bid, is that the seller knows or suspects that their minimum price is too high to attract bidders (i.e. they could get the same item for less elsewhere) and is hoping to get lucky and profit from a bidding war between uninformed or irrational buyers.

[Laura N]

Personally, after buying 100s of items there, I am now a bit leery of eBay, and only buy from them when I have no other alternative. But I absolutely understand why bargain hunters or professionals like Bruce love it. If you possess more information than the seller, or restoration skills like Bruce, or you are willing to spend a lot of time looking for undervalued items, there's profit there.

 

On the other hand, if you just want to buy an item, and get it quickly, and have it work, like a boring ordinary shopper, then it's not always such a treat. There is a wide range of sellers, and it's not always easy to find out in advance which kind you have. The feedback system is imperfect.

 

That said, if I had a seller who never responded to my query, I wouldn't be upset to have been blocked by him. I would never have bought from him in the first place. There's that old saying, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them."

[chrevbel]

I'm confused about the couple of comments regardoing ebay discontinuing buyer feedback. I'm still getting feedback as a buyer.

[chrevbel]

And you never see this kind of (bleep) going on at a live auction either.

Not true. I grew up attending the occasional auction house in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Shill bidding and other shenanigans were all part of the game.

[jgdye]

I'm confused about the couple of comments regardoing ebay discontinuing buyer feedback. I'm still getting feedback as a buyer.

Not like it used to be. Now buyers can only get positive feedback. Originally they could get neutral or negative. The change was intended to stop sellers from intimidating buyers into leaving positive feedback by threatening them with negative feedback if they gave anything else, but the new policy means that a bad buyer can hold the threat of negative feedback to force rebates, etc., regardless of whether the buyer has attempted to work with the seller or not.