Bidding fever

[RandalPark@xxxxxxx]

Steve, 

I attended the Ebay workshop that was held in our area a few weeks ago. They 
explained why you are better off having a low reserve, or even better, no 
reserve at all if you really want to sell the car. The item will say "reserve 
not met" after the first bid, and that is the clue that the car may not be 
priced right. Many bidders won't waste their time and/or energy if they think 
that they have no chance of buying the car at a reasonable price.

Without attending the workshop, I had figured out the psychology of the auction 
a long time ago, through both observation and experience. The first guy will 
bid if he thinks he might get a bargain. The next one will bid because he 
doesn't want to see it go to someone else that cheap. After that, bidding fever 
takes over. Each person that bids on the car starts thinking that they want it. 
Pretty soon they are all thinking "he can't have that car, I AM GOING TO BUY 
IT". Once you get about five bidders thinking that way, anything is possible.

Bottom line, none of this is going to happen if you don't capture the interest 
and the possessiveness of the first bidder. You are taking a chance that the 
car might sell too cheap, but I think that you can always cancel your auction 
if after the first few days no one is willing to pay anything for the car.

Usually, if the car is any good at all, "bidding fever" will take it right up 
to, and usually just over its true value.

Paul

In a message dated 3/8/2004 6:59:55 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
imperial59@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

> 
> 
> 
> Placing a high reserve will often discourage bids, while allowing the
> bidding to set the market will often result in a selling price that is
> higher than expected.
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
> Why would a high reserve discourage bidders?  One doesn't even know if
> their bid is going to meet the reserve until after they have made the
> bid.  I have found that you have the best luck starting the opening bid
> somewhere low (couple thousand) and set a reserve that you can live
> with.
> 
>                 Steve B.
> 
> 
> 
>