OzVMX Forum

Clubroom => General Discussion => Topic started by: mx250 on January 17, 2008, 09:30:59 pm

Title: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: mx250 on January 17, 2008, 09:30:59 pm
Call me dumb, but whats the purpose of reserve price auctions - do ya wanta sell or not?

Do the sellers approach the highest bidder in cases where the reserve is not meet?
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: Nathan S on January 17, 2008, 09:40:30 pm
If you've got something that you'd only sell if you can get at least (say) $500, then a reserve auction is the obvious choice. I sold my BMW 2002 for about half what I thought it'd be worth because I was too dumb/over confident to bother setting a reserve.

Of course, human greed means that the reserve is usually set too high... Think of all the times where you go to look at something (away from Ebay), and you haggle the seller down to well below what they reckon is their "absolute bottom line" because it's been advertised for weeks and weeks and you're the first person to come and look at their over-priced wares...
Of course, an auction doesn't work that way, so potential buyers are frustrated and potential sellers have wasted their money.
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: mx250 on January 17, 2008, 09:49:37 pm
Think of all the times where you go to look at something of Ebay, and you haggle the seller down to well below what they reckon is their "absolute bottom line"
Have you approached a seller after closing and got the item at a reduced price? This can be done?
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: Freakshow on January 17, 2008, 11:05:54 pm
Hello ..... mx.......hello.   

better yet just email them to sell it now, do it all the time :O) if you dont some other bastards going to tug it from under you  ::)

and nat stolen 02 BM's dont count.
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: Nathan S on January 17, 2008, 11:14:09 pm
Used to be able to do it - it's how I got my YZ250D - but I haven't figured out how to do it nowdays, unless:
1. They've listed their phone number/email in the ad;
2. They're selling something else (and you contact them through that ad);
3. You've contacted them before the auction ends, and have their email address...

But remember, I'm no Ebay guru.

With the number of scammers out there, many sellers seem automatically wary of anything off Ebay. It used to be that adding your phone number helped heaps (makes you a real person/accountable), but that seems less effective in recent times.

Freaky, it was a 71 model. ;)
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: Freakshow on January 17, 2008, 11:23:14 pm
OK stolen 71's dont count either, and just because it was left down the back of your yard 2 years earlier by some kids its not finders keepers.   ;D
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: Quicksilver on January 18, 2008, 08:35:13 am
This is sort of auction I think MX250 is talking about.
Check the answers to the questions. Cockie SOB.  I for one hope he gets stuck with it. I was talking lastnight with a Indian collector ive known for years, he wont be bothering with this one based solely on the seller attitude. That straight from the horse's mouth.. Seller just lost a serious bidder with the funds to back him.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290197886848&ssPageName=STRK:MEBI:IT&ih=019
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: Gerard De Ruyter (Twistandshout) on January 18, 2008, 09:03:52 am
Oh I do like that ad - 'removed from storage six months ago and started second kick'.  gee, that's lucky.
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: lyle2212 on January 19, 2008, 12:34:18 pm
If you see an item on Ebay that you want to buy, but does,nt reach the reserve price ,then contact the seller after the auction has ended and see what price they will agree to.
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: crash n bern on January 23, 2008, 09:00:05 am
You can't really blame the guy for being cocky with some of the stupid comments he gets. I had a bunch of stuff for sale on Ebay awhile back. I had a buy it now price to save on the stuffing around. Everything was priced fair. No matter how well you explain things you always have people asking obvious and stupid questions and then you get all the stupid offers. I don't mind a sensible offer, but if it's worth $500 and I'm asking $250 I'm not going to take $100.  By the end of the week I was pulling my hair out answering all the dumb questions. No the cams for the  04 Yamaha WR250 will not fit your 81 DT175.

As for the reserve price, lets say your selling your bike. It's worth $5000, what if you only get one bid and have to sell it for 99 cents?  Or the ebay scam. Bloke A bets 99 cents, his mate bloke B bets $10,000. No one else bids because the current bid is way over the value. Then in the last few seconds of the auction ending bloke B withdraws his bid and bloke A wins with his bid of 99 cents.  Nothing ebay can do about it, or cares to do about it.  So reserve price is a good idea.
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: Tex on January 23, 2008, 09:36:59 am
I normally just start the auction at whatever my reserve price is.

Tex
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: LWC82PE on January 23, 2008, 10:02:38 am
imagine that, getting a bike for 99cents!!!. by the time sellers fees for photos etc are taken out he would get no money at all!!!!!
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: YSS on January 23, 2008, 10:41:45 am
Yes that is so easy with the internet , just type in a few words and somebody has to take you serious and can stuff you around for hours sending lists ,answering silly questions , for no return . I have become very wary with this type cyber people over a period of time with that sort of thing . I will send them my phone number or give them business address and if they are for real , they ring or come to see you . If you then don't hear from them ,i don't feel bad , they probably never had real intentions to do business anyway.
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: BETRIC on January 23, 2008, 11:47:52 am
I just sold a NOS Suzuki 73/74 TS125 pipe on Ebay and some dope during the auction asked if the pipe would fit a 94 TS185 Suzuki ??? ???
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: evo550 on January 23, 2008, 12:18:50 pm
I have been watching a TM250 (the italian type) recently that bidding started at $100 with no reserve, the auction was won at about $1700.00.
Two days later it's relisted with a 99c reserve not met price.
The seller then goes on to say in his description that the reserve is $3000.00
Why not just list as starting bid $3000 if that's the lowest you will take???

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/2002-tm-250mx_W0QQitemZ330206125864QQihZ014QQcategoryZ32074QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: LWC82PE on January 23, 2008, 12:30:59 pm
weird hey
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: lyle2212 on January 23, 2008, 03:06:04 pm
I,ve seen some trippers on Ebay relist the same item over and over again, at a starting price that know one is interested in. You,d think that if no one was bidding then they would lower the price, after all the expense involved . Maybe they,ve nothing better to do  !
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: firko on January 23, 2008, 03:35:16 pm
It's slightly off topic but this clown has been listing this rusty old Japanese tank of some sort as a "Rickman Bultaco Alron Hodaka ace 90" for over six months with $39.99 Buy it Now on it. I've emailed him twice to tell him it's from none of those bikes and recieved an email back telling me it's identical to an "Australian built Alron he saw in VMX". Jonsey and another mate have also told him he's got it wrong but he's still got it up there along with another equally wrong tank for 40 bucks. It's not worth $5.
You'd think that after 6 plus months he'd get the message.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/RCK1-Rickman-Bultaco-Alron-Hodaka-ace-90-AHRMA-fuel-tan_W0QQitemZ230178249418QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230178249418 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/RCK1-Rickman-Bultaco-Alron-Hodaka-ace-90-AHRMA-fuel-tan_W0QQitemZ230178249418QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230178249418)
or http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/RCK2-Rickman-Bultaco-Alron-Hodaka-ace-90-AHRMA-fuel-tan_W0QQitemZ230178249425QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230178249425 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/RCK2-Rickman-Bultaco-Alron-Hodaka-ace-90-AHRMA-fuel-tan_W0QQitemZ230178249425QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230178249425)
Out of curiosity, can any of the experts on the forum identify the tank/s? My guess is that the second one is from a Suzuki TC120
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: paul on January 23, 2008, 03:39:49 pm
what a rusty bit off crap  all he needs to do is add wheelsmith and hes covered the lot
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: LWC82PE on January 23, 2008, 04:36:13 pm
now ive seen items that dont sell and then the seller relists the item at an even higher price! i dont get that. wouldnt you lower it  ???
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: crash n bern on January 24, 2008, 10:48:15 pm
Sometimes if it's too cheap people think there's something wrong with it. I know a guy that once had a old Chrysler for sale for $5,000 no one would look at it so he re advertised it for $7,000 and sold it straight away.
I've also learned that sooner or later everything sells. Sometimes I look through the retail items in my shop and I'll pick something up and think "damn thats been on the shelf for 8 years, they'll bury me with that." The next day it's gone.
I've advertised bikes and not even gotten one call. Six months later put it in the paper and the phone goes hot.

I took a swag of pre 80 dirtbikes to a two day swap back in 2000 I couldn't give them away. I had a guy tell me that the 75 250 Elsinore in original running condition still with the safety stickers on the tank was way overpriced at $700 and that I would never sell it.  He knew because he held some high position in the VMXclub. (This was before the pre80 class I believe.) I told him that $700 would buy a lot of spare parts for a 74 Elsinore.  I took all the bikes back home, put them in the trading post and sold them all in one day. I even sold bikes I didn't advertise.  I regret all this now though. $600 for my MK9 370 pursang, $500 for my 75 pomeroy replica. $600 for my yamy mx250c  My gold medal frontera AAAAARRRRRGG
Title: Re: Ebay - reserve prices.
Post by: LWC82PE on January 25, 2008, 08:45:20 am
people want everything for free at swap meets and a lot of complete or rolling bikes dont sell.