Posted By:
AnonymousI've been using eBay since almost day one. The early scam was to run your auction with a reserve price of $1,000,000 with $1 opening bid. You were only the charged the price of the opening bid. At the end of the auction you would then offer the card to the high bidder for the price he did, thus avioding the final sale fee. eBay's solution was to charge the fee based on teh reserve price and charge a added fee on top of that if the lot did not meet reserve, that way they were getting some money from the deal even if the transaction went on oof-line.
The only time I have run reserve auctions is on items that I would sell for the right price, or like Scott were unique and may not get a reason price if there are not some knowledgable bidders involved, and if it wasn't met, then I would rather keep it. If someone emailed me asking the reserve I would always tell them, but never posted it in the auction. It hink there is a certain group of bidders out there that like to play "let's guess the reserve".
reserve auction tend to annoy me, but I will throw in a bid anyway. I have 'won' several items by being the high bidder without meeting the reserve and seller offering me the item at my bid after teh auction closed. So it is worthwhile to throw up a bid on something you are interested in. You never know what will happen.
I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home I would be arrested, so I go to baseball games and fit right in.