I'm more likely to bid on a no reserve auction. I know if I'm the high bidder I'll win it.
But I also bid on auctions where there's a reserve, either stated or hidden.
If it's stated, I just have to decide if I want to pay that much. Pretty easy, protects the seller, and gives me an idea wether I'm going to be close to affording it. If the reserve isn't stated, and I'm really interested, I'll ask what it is. Sometimes The seller will say what the reserve is if asked. I've sold maybe 5-6 things with a reserve over 10+ years. I don't always state the reserve, but will if asked. All but two of my reserves were laughably low, one ended up being 1/6 of the final selling price. The two I was too high on I ended up discussing the price with people that eventually bought the items.
One convinced me I was too high by about half, the other I had a lot of profit, the price was ok and the collection it went into was a great match.
(The buyer taught a college program on the books topic)
What I don't get is the sellers that refuse to state the reserve even when asked. Usually they say it's to "be fair to the other bidders" which makes no sense to me. And usually I won't bother bidding. If they say it's just their policy to not reveal reserves, I may bid, but usually bid less than I might if I knew the reserve.
Of course on Ebay there's sneaky ways of finding out. I've never done it, but it's possible to have a friend place a very large bid which goes immediately to the reserve, then retract it. Pretty slimy, and I've never wanted anything badly enough to resort to that.
Steve B
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