How many times have you clicked on something on ebay that was listed as "no reserve", only to open it and find that the seller has a starting bid on it that is higher than most would start the bidding at? The seller's starting bid really is a reserve then :sly: Kind of misleading I think!!

I agree, there really isn't much difference between the two.

I have found that if you start your bid price out low like $99 for a sled, you'll get more bidders, which Ebay will give you a "hot item" symbol when you have 20 bidsd or so. The more people who catch the "hot item" will likely place a bid on there.

as for the people who have their starting bid at their "reserve" price, best of luck to them, they just need to learn to play the ebay game I guess. :p

Joel

I have only tried selling one thing one ebay and if memory serves me right, if no one bids on your item, you dot pay anything. But if you put an item on there at a starting price of a $1 with a reserve you pay ebay wether or not the reserve is met. I agree that it is dumb!!

I have a feedback rating of 163 and don't agree with ebay's selling fees but have found ebay very profitable.

i also agree i have sold about 22 sleds thru ebay and waverunners in the summer. i find them in the off season take good care of them and give them a nice hot bath take some pics and make a small fortune... ebay does charge a bit for selling but i still make about 500-1000 a sled.. i always start my auctions at 25$ or 99$ and it does attract more bidders. plus the more bids you have the safer the buyers feel about placeing one but always just put a reserve on the auction.

Originally posted by XCR583@Sep 9 2003, 12:36 AM
I have only tried selling one thing one ebay and if memory serves me right, if no one bids on your item, you dot pay anything. But if you put an item on there at a starting price of a $1 with a reserve you pay ebay wether or not the reserve is met. I agree that it is dumb!!
You do pay a listing fee even if your item does not sell.
Once your item does sell, you also pay a Final Value Fee according to a scale.

As far as starting an item at a low price to get a number of bids, that can work well as long as you are prepared take the chance of the item not getting up to what you had hoped. Depending on what you are selling and who happens to be looking that week it can happen.

There is also a small fee for a reserve price because a while back people were simply listing items with a low starting bid and putting an unrealistic reserve price to simply see what the item would bring as a high bid. Ebay started that a couple of years ago.

I have been selling items on ebay for four years now with great success, the fees are very minmal and if you do some homework and see what items are really selling for on ebay you can do well.

Joe