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Whats the point of bidding on reserve price?

I see bids all the time for like 5 mill on an item that says "reserve price of 35,000,000 has not been met on this item"

yet people still bid low?

why?

why even place a reserve price if we can see it? 0_0 why not just make 35 mill your starting 0_0

srry, but even though I quit, I've always asked myself this question

OT: we should get basil to work directly with nexon, like when we actually start an auction here, the item and money will be transferred over by nexon as a message on login

also people with not enough mesos wont be allowed to bid

July 4, 2013

12 Comments • Newest first

MegaSonic

[quote=BobR]Lol... that's not how things are run.
Mr. Basil asks for people's opinions to help get an idea of what Basilmarket users want, but it's only one factor that goes into making the decisions for a site like this.

"Reserve pricing" is a standard feature of most auctions.
It has a number of legitimate uses, mainly it prevents an item from being sold for less than the owner considers its value, in cases where no one bids high enough to reach that figure. Everyone "hears of" people who've gone to an auction and "made a killing" bidding $1 for a Ferrari or Picasso, and no one else bid against them.
Reserve pricing prevents that from happening, if you choose to use it.

As to your question about why anyone would bid lower than the reserve price, it can be used to "mark" an auction so you can easily find it in your "My Auctions" page to return to later, instead of having to bookmark it in your browser or drill down through all the pages of items over and over.
It can also be used to indicate to the seller that bidders don't agree with their valuation of the item. If an item doesn't sell because the final bid doesn't reach the reserve, perhaps the seller will reconsider the value and put it up for auction again with a lower reserve, or no reserve at all.

A reserve price with a low starting bid is often used to "prime the pump" or just get bidding started. Putting a high starting bid on an item will often discourage anyone from even starting to bid, and auctions with no bids often fail to attract any attention. It can also spark a "bidding war" where one of the bidders may decide they really do want the item for the reserve price (or perhaps even more than the reserve).

And the final thing is, of course, anyone who doesn't like reserve prices on auctions is perfectly free not to bid on the auctions.[/quote]

reserve prices are NOT meant to be shown, you cant argue against this

go to any auction in real life, and try to find one where they show the reserve price

ill give you my account if you do

Reply July 4, 2013
BobR

[quote=MegaSonic]I really don't agree with his method of leaving the final decision to a site full of 12 year olds who agree to his every move -_-[/quote]

Lol... that's not how things are run.
Mr. Basil asks for people's opinions to help get an idea of what Basilmarket users want, but it's only one factor that goes into making the decisions for a site like this.

"Reserve pricing" is a standard feature of most auctions.
It has a number of legitimate uses, mainly it prevents an item from being sold for less than the owner considers its value, in cases where no one bids high enough to reach that figure. Everyone "hears of" people who've gone to an auction and "made a killing" bidding $1 for a Ferrari or Picasso, and no one else bid against them.
Reserve pricing prevents that from happening, if you choose to use it.

As to your question about why anyone would bid lower than the reserve price, it can be used to "mark" an auction so you can easily find it in your "My Auctions" page to return to later, instead of having to bookmark it in your browser or drill down through all the pages of items over and over.
It can also be used to indicate to the seller that bidders don't agree with their valuation of the item. If an item doesn't sell because the final bid doesn't reach the reserve, perhaps the seller will reconsider the value and put it up for auction again with a lower reserve, or no reserve at all.

A reserve price with a low starting bid is often used to "prime the pump" or just get bidding started. Putting a high starting bid on an item will often discourage anyone from even starting to bid, and auctions with no bids often fail to attract any attention. It can also spark a "bidding war" where one of the bidders may decide they really do want the item for the reserve price (or perhaps even more than the reserve).

And the final thing is, of course, anyone who doesn't like reserve prices on auctions is perfectly free not to bid on the auctions.

Reply July 4, 2013
MegaSonic

[quote=EmpireSun]@MegaSonic: Don't bother. Before the change, he made a thread to get feedback before making it official. I wrote something way more elaborate at that time. With more examples from a buyer and a seller perspective.[/quote]

I really don't agree with his method of leaving the final decision to a site full of 12 year olds who agree to his every move -_-

Reply July 4, 2013
EmpireSun

@MegaSonic: Don't bother. Before the change, he made a thread to get feedback before making it official. I wrote something way more elaborate at that time. With more examples from a buyer and a seller perspective.

Reply July 4, 2013
MegaSonic

[quote=EmpireSun]In the past, the reserve price was invisible to the buyers. This was really good because if you wanted to sell something, you never needed to check on the auction at the last minute to see whether your reserve price was met or not. If you were selling an item for 50m and someone offered 1k, (well knowing the price of the item) you didn't had to worry.

When Mr. Basil decided to changed this and make it visible, I opposed to the change. To this date, I still think it was one of the stupidest changes in auctions. That was mainly the reason I stopped using Basil for auctions.

There's no point whatsoever to put...lets say a Tyrant Belt for 2b and putting a reserve price of 7b. If you are not going to sell the item for less than 7b, then why don't you just put 7b to begin with!

However, if the reserve price was invisible, people would bid 2b immediately. Then someone would see the auction for just 2b and bid more. Then other guys would join on the bidding, etc.
In the past, my auctions would get tons of bids. Like 30 bids in just 3 days from 3-4 people that bid from the beginning and they compete to win the item.[/quote]

@mrbasil:

you should take his advice

Reply July 4, 2013
EmpireSun

In the past, the reserve price was invisible to the buyers. This was really good because if you wanted to sell something, you never needed to check on the auction at the last minute to see whether your reserve price was met or not. If you were selling an item for 50m and someone offered 1k, (well knowing the price of the item) you didn't had to worry.

When Mr. Basil decided to changed this and make it visible, I opposed to the change. To this date, I still think it was one of the stupidest changes in auctions. That was mainly the reason I stopped using Basil for auctions.

There's no point whatsoever to put...lets say a Tyrant Belt for 2b and putting a reserve price of 7b. If you are not going to sell the item for less than 7b, then why don't you just put 7b to begin with!

However, if the reserve price was invisible, people would bid 2b immediately. Then someone would see the auction for just 2b and bid more. Then other guys would join on the bidding, etc.
In the past, my auctions would get tons of bids. Like 30 bids in just 3 days from 3-4 people that bid from the beginning and they compete to win the item.

Reply July 4, 2013
MegaSonic

@hazza:

I do that all the time

usually when I want it and don't wanna bid war

Reply July 4, 2013
8deathlord8

[quote=thailehuy]Because the reserve price is the price the seller hopes to sell for, and most of the time, it might or might not be the price bidders want to bid.

If he keep starting price low, bidders will come from the listing page thinking it starting low.[/quote]

Kinda defeats the purpose if we can see the reserve price

Reply July 4, 2013
Hazza

I hate it how a bid starts as 1,000, no reserved price, then all of a sudden, someone bids 30m and such.

Reply July 4, 2013
MegaSonic

[quote=thailehuy]Because the reserve price is the price the seller hopes to sell for, and most of the time, it might or might not be the price bidders want to bid.

If he keep starting price low, bidders will come from the listing page thinking it starting low.[/quote]

why bid under the reserve price then?

Reply July 4, 2013
wrathofgod54

idk but that's exactly what I thought of too lol

Reply July 4, 2013
narubaka13

Idk. Seems pointless to me. Reserve prices make me not bid on it because I feel those people are dumb =w= I don't want to work with dumb people D:

Reply July 4, 2013