20 Nov
2006
20 Nov
'06
2:16 p.m.
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006, William Donzelli wrote:
Or the item that sells regularly for $500 that cost $5? ;)
Why start it too low and sell it for $150 when the market will without a
doubt bear $500? That's why I'm a fan of setting reasonable prices for
starting bids instead of using a hidden reserve.
I don't think the discussion was specifically about "rare" items though.
Lots and lots of sellers are using reserves on common and downright cheap
items thinking they are worth a lot more than they are.
A lot of the stuff I deal with I consider commodity stuff, though some
buyers consider it rare. Its all a matter of perspective. I bought out the
entire inventory of TRS-80 cassette and 4-pin serial cables when all the
Radio Shack stores in Houston sent them to the outlet store in the late
80s. You'd be hard pressed to find them NOS now, but even after giving so
many away over the years, I'm still sitting on quite a few (though at the
current rate they sell, I'll probably run out sometime early this next
year). Does that make them rare?
-Toth
After awhile
though, the seller should get tired of paying the listing
and reserve fees if the item isn't selling :)
Cost of business. So what if you wasted fifty dollars on dud auctions if
you realize one hundred dollars more than market value. ...or the
buyer will move on to the next one, possibly paying more for
one that doesn't have a reserve. I've seen it go down both ways.
Yes, but often it is a long time between the next one. This is why
reserve auctions are geared towards rarer or higher ticket items.