posted on December 2, 2003 07:46:33 AM newTheir complaint...
Good Morning:
I was the high bidder on this auction when it ended last night. I had bid a bit more than what it had ended at and it ended at $26. You relisted it with a reserve at less than what it ended. You could have offered it to me instead of relisting and made a sale for more than the relist price and saved another listing fee. Because of this I will not bid on this item. I will purchase one from someone else, even if I pay more from them. You do not deserve my money.
Sincerely,
Michael
My reply...
Good morning as well.
I appreciate your concern. I listed this item twice with a reserve of $30 and a BIN of $35.
Both times it failed to reach the reserve.
Because of your bid of $26 -- which is lower than the reserve, thus you didn't "win" the auction -- I decided the threshold for this item was lower than originally anticipated. As such, I relisted a third time with a reserve of $25 and a BIN of $30.
I prefer to work within the ebay rules and list items accordingly. My only relationship to you was through your bid on ebay -- as such, it would be most improper of me to sell this item to you outside of ebay... contacting you for that sole purpose.
Yes, it cost me more to relist. Sorry that you are no longer interested in the item. However, it should be noted that per ebay's bidding rules, had you bid "a bit more than what it had ended at" you still bid UNDER the stated reserve. Otherwise, your bid would have forced the price up to the reserve price automatically.
Sorry that you have taken this personally.
Have a Merry Christmas!
------ "Bend over backward for the customer. Don't bend forward."
posted on December 2, 2003 09:22:16 AM new
Wonderful answer! Good going. And you didn't stoop to the bidder's low level. Very professional, I think.
___________________________________
Junk: Stuff we throw away.
Stuff: Junk we keep.
posted on December 2, 2003 10:50:40 AM newWHY would you ever spend $1 on a $30 reserve auction??
Reserve auctions po most bidders biggie-time...many run & hide at the very thought of a reserve.
I DO use reserve auctions, but VERY RARELY & only when we be talking for the big buck auctions!
Like, if I have to get AT LEAST $200 for an item, I might start with $19.99+200reserve -- just to get the eyeballs onto the page, as a $200 opening bid scares off many.
Reserves on very low priced items do only one thing: line Meg's Underoos with un-necessary moola!
posted on December 2, 2003 11:00:41 AM new
tomwiii -- For some of us, a $30 item IS a big ticket item. We don't want to lose it for $5.00 due to some fluctuation in bidding trends. Each seller has to decide for themselves. In addition, in almost all my reserve auctions, the reserve *IS* hit and you get the $1.00 back. So nothing goes to Mega's underdrawers drawer.
This auction was an oddity, to be sure.
As for pissing off bidders, I've never found that to be the case. ONLY when the seller refuses to disclose the reserve is there a problem. In this case, it was disclosed.
------ "Bend over backward for the customer. Don't bend forward."
posted on December 2, 2003 11:04:05 AM new
But wait... there's more!!!
Their reply...
Hello:
You fail to realize my intent. Very often when I have bid upon an it and did not win, the seller has offered what is known as a second chance. It comes through eBay and all of the rules apply. I had such an offer just this morning on another piece of software. You had the opportunity to do the same thing. You could have offered the item instead of relisting. It would have been sold under the original listing. It really does not matter at this point. You made your choice and I have made mine. I just thought that you should know, anyone infact, when they have lost a customer and why. Customers are hard to find and even harder to keep. Maybe next time you will be able to save yourself some money and still make a sale. Just for the record my bid was $29.99.
Sincerely,
Michael
Mine...
Thanks for the followup.
I now see where your confusion is.
The "second chance" offer that ebay allows is ONLY when the item actually sells -- and the winning bidder fails to uphold their end of the deal.
It is NOT available through ebay when an item fails to sell.
Your underbid of $29.99 was not a winning bid. The reserve was shown in the auction in bold letters. $30.00. Your penny-short bid not only prevented you from winning the auction -- it also kept the buy-it-now option available to those who might sweep it out from under you.
As such, the auction ended with the $26.00 increment as the high bid. Thus it ended without a winner -- therefore no "second chance" offer could be made via ebay.
You are free to check this out with ebay's stated rules. As this was clearly a misunderstanding on your part, I hope you will reconsider your boycott of my auctions.
----
Needless to say -- he's going on my blocked bidder list.
------ "Bend over backward for the customer. Don't bend forward."
posted on December 2, 2003 11:33:16 AM new
Soorry...A reserve on a $30 item is not only a total WASTE of MOOLA, it repulses bidders.
Start at $29.99 with a BIN of $35
$29 donna scare folks away from at least looking! I start many auctions at 59.99 or 79.99 & get ooodles of hits & bids!
But, yes, you're right: they do be yer auctions to do with as ye pleases! I just get a bad case of bush-pretzels whenever I see someone nice just throwing moola at Meg fer no reason
posted on December 2, 2003 12:09:17 PM new
But again, Tom... you're mistaken.
YOU DO NOT PAY THE RESERVE FEE IF THE RESERVE IS MET. Period.
YOU DO PAY A HIGHER LISTING FEE if you start at $29.99. And that is NOT refundable.
And it's been my experience that reserves with lower opening bids is a far better way to go. Bids attract bids. But if you cannot get an opening bid, then you are doomed. Starting any bid higher than $10 can spell trouble. A lot more trouble than a publicly known reserve price.
You also have not shown any evidence that a reserve repulses bidders. From experience it is NOT the case.
Why did you even post this last reply when you offered absolutely nothing new (and in fact some things that are incorrect).
------ "Bend over backward for the customer. Don't bend forward."
posted on December 2, 2003 12:35:33 PM new
It is hard to get a good study of this, since there are so many variables, and people themselves are unpredictable. In my fall/winter listing, I have been experimenting, and results are all over the place.
Judging by the bid histories on my own and other auctions I follow, there seem to be a lot of people who are dreamers, and will not bid above ten dollars on anything, reserve or no.
But, for entertainment purposes, here goes.
One item is identical (not similar, not close, but identical) to an item that was up a few weeks ago. That one started at 89.95, no reserve, bidding from get go, eight bidders, ends over $200. No others listed on eBay since. List mine, same categories, virtually same description (you really can only describe this one way), 10.00 start bid, 55.00 reserve. I am thinking this is a shoo-in for at least 100.00 final. No bids until day six, three bidders, bidding has skyrocketed to 15.00. Maybe tomorrow will bring a frenzy of last day bids.
Another 100.00 item listed is up to 10.00. Wonder if they will hit that 40.00 reserve, or if that will be too rich for them as well. I am well experienced, and realistic about prices today, so my reserves are usually about one-third of an average retail. I know most ebay buyers would like both no minimum and no reserve, but I don't feel like sponsoring them.
posted on December 2, 2003 01:03:44 PM new
Did you disclose the reserve prices?
Also, while you COULD blame the reserve for the bidding problems. -- You could also CREDIT the reserve for keeping you from losing your shirt.
------ "Bend over backward for the customer. Don't bend forward."
posted on December 2, 2003 02:10:01 PM new
Did I get this right? You wanted $30 for it and he was willing to pay $29.99? Quit the BS and offer to sell the dang thing to him for $29.99!!
posted on December 2, 2003 02:26:45 PM new
Just my input on reserve auctions - As a bidder, I hit the back button as soon as I see them. I don't want to play games of trying to guess what the seller wants for the item.
As far as reserves on a $30 item, it is your business, but I would start at $24.99 (60 cent listing) and see it go from there. If a few dollars short occasionally is going to affect your bottom line, sounds like ebay is not the best venue for selling for whatever you are selling. You might be losing a lot of potential customers just because of the reserve thing though.
posted on December 2, 2003 04:02:17 PM new
ebayauctionguy said Did I get this right? You wanted $30 for it and he was willing to pay $29.99? Quit the BS and offer to sell the dang thing to him for $29.99!!
No. You got it wrong.
It was listed with a posted reserve of $30. He bid 29.99, why not $30, I have no idea. So his bid was only up to $26.
Auction ended. NO WINNER.
I relisted with a lower reserve of $24.99.
THEN he complained that I didn't use the Second Chance offer function (which was not available in this circumstance). He got all ticked about it.
I would have gladly let him bid 29.99 -- but he chose to take his business elsewhere and lecture me about it (even though it was his mistake in not understanding the rules). So his bid was gone.
AND at the time he contacted me, there was already a bid for $25.00 on the item by another bidder. As such, I couldn't be a bad seller and kill the auction for him.
So yes. You didn't get it.
------ "Bend over backward for the customer. Don't bend forward."
posted on December 2, 2003 04:12:40 PM new ahc3: Just my input on reserve auctions - As a bidder, I hit the back button as soon as I see them. I don't want to play games of trying to guess what the seller wants for the item.
Depends. If the item is something I want. I take the time to ask. I've only ever had one seller not divulge the reserve price.
As far as reserves on a $30 item, it is your business, but I would start at $24.99 (60 cent listing) and see it go from there. If a few dollars short occasionally is going to affect your bottom line, sounds like ebay is not the best venue for selling for whatever you are selling. You might be losing a lot of potential customers just because of the reserve thing though.
My experience is that starting things that high drives away people. You have to get the right person to take that leap. I prefer to start at $1. This was software and sells well on ebay, so that is clearly not the issue.
Somehow people have misunderstood this whole thing (thanks to tomwiii). I don't put a reserve on every auction. Hardly. But I do when appropriate.
And again, there is no evidence that reserves on a whole causes a loss of customers. I've not seen it in my auctions. Others may have different experiences, but not enough to state something empirically.
------ "Bend over backward for the customer. Don't bend forward."
posted on December 2, 2003 04:20:39 PM new
>>>>No bids until day six, three bidders, bidding has skyrocketed to 15.00. Maybe tomorrow will bring a frenzy of last day bids. >>>
Now have eight bids - five of them from one bidder apparently trying to suss out the reserve - and they are still not the high bid (20.50). So this person bid five times between 15.00 and 20.00. Now, I don't exactly throw money around, but I think I would have just thrown in a 20.00 bid, instead of what I assume is a 1.00 increment each time. It's not like this is a 25.00 item, where paying 18.00 vs. 19.00 might make a big difference.
posted on December 2, 2003 04:29:38 PM new
tomwill: that is your opinion. Not everyone shares that philosphy. You do it your way & thats fine, but why do you put others down? Everyone is entitled to do it the way feel is right.
