Posted By:
Judge DredPaul,
You can always "protect the investment" by placing a reserve on the item. This does two things:
1) The BIN price will remain established until the reserve is met.
2) Discourage bidders because lots of people don't like reserves.
You had a BIN price of $225 on the card in question. You could have put a reserve on the card of lets say $150 and have the BIN at $225 and let everyone know that the reserve is $150. At that point the only person that could kill the BIN is a serious buyer. The next thought is that a sniper at the end could pick it up for $150. This is a chance you take but at least you'll know you're getting a minimum amount for it.
When I see an item with a BIN that is too high (my opinion) I will try and let it go for a few hours (at least) to allow someone else to grab the item. I'll do this unless I smell a bargain in the making. Believe me, this has backfired more times than not.
Ending auctions early might turn off a lot of potential bidders in future auctions because they wont know if you're going to do it again. Not many people like wasting time bidding on stuff that's potentially not going to be available at the end of the auction.
I guess it's one of those choices you have to make. There are people that posted that they don't care if an auction ends early and then there are those that will peg you as someone to avoid in future auctions. It's those potential bidders that just might give your items some serious action at the end of the auctions (if they haven't been alienated).
I'm pretty sure their are people out there that wouldn't mind having this card even though the ad has been trimmed off. We'll find out in about 6 days if you made the right decision (unless you pull the card from being sold).
Good Luck!!!