Posted By:
Ed HansA lot of good points have been made here. I personally don't like reserves and usually don't bother bidding in auctions that use them. Too often the "reserve" is just a retail price. Go set up at a show or take out an ad in SCD or open up a card store if you need to get retail for your cards. This is an auction format. Ebay is a vast marketplace with huge exposure. The vast majority of items will fetch a reasonable facsimile of market value (not to be confused with "book" value). I have never used reserves for items that I sell, though I can certainly understand wanting some protection for a really special or unique item that might get lost or overlooked on ebay. I think I would be inclined to use Mastro or another high profile auction house for those items. As to publishing the reserve price, I am totally at a loss to understand this. Surely the theory of getting lots of bids and bidders by starting with a low opening bid is by the boards, since those bottom fishers (like me) can see that their bids will be worthless. Why not just cut to the chase and set your minimum bid as your reserve.
Thanks for a great forum on vintage cards!