I always wonder, why do people bother bidding 3, 4, 5,000 on cars with a reserve set, that are clearly worth way more than their super low bid?

Does it make them feel good to be a part of something? Do they really think the seller is stupid enough to spend money on a reserve and then set the reserve price nowhere near the cars' worth, hence negating the actual purpose of a reserve price?

Not trying to be a jerk, but it just doesn't make any sense to me. And it's happened with every car I've sold or try to sell on eBay.

Any thoughts on this mystery?

 

I never could figure it out, on cars or any other item.

In any auction, whether eBay or real-life, you are an idiot if you bid before the last second, because all you do is drive the price up. You wait until the auctioneer says "Going twice!" before you put your hand up. At that point, either you have competition or you don't. If you do, then you can decide whether to stay with it, let the other guy have it, or keep bidding it up, just to screw the other guy.

- Eric

 

I would think many people are just hoping the reserve is lower than you have it set for. I have never bid on a car on ebay - Bidders have to start somewhere.

How many people pull up to you and ask if your car is for sale, drives we nuts.

 

Eric is dead on the money.
This is the exact logic I have employed for at least 6 years now on Ebay and other auctions.
If I see there is a reserve set, I message the seller to find out what it is to see if it's even worth my time.

HOWEVER,......
I do understand why sellers set a price dirt cheap to attract viewers, even with a reserve set.
It does work.

 

Aceshigh hit it right too.

Sellers start there auction at 0.99 or whatever with a reserve to just attract more attention to their item. A lot more people will take a look at a car with bidding less then 3k then one that is 15k+.

Bidders may just bid on that way below reserve price because they have nothing to lose. It keeps them "watching the car" and I doubt they are really expecting to win it at that price. Hell, maybe one day they'll win the lottery and a seller will just get rid of their car way below reserve.

 

personally i never set a reserve. i just set an opening bid for the lowest i will take. if it goes more fine. this way, if it gets at least one bid it is sold.

 

I would never buy a car on ebay. I have heard more horror stories than positive ones. There are people with enough sales and dealers that would be worth a look but the risk is to high for the prices paid without inspection of the vehicle. Many of the reserve auctions are to flush out buyers to try to sell the car off Ebay. That is why Ebay recently made it more difficult to communicate with the buyers and sellers.

 

My ebay horror story involved a 1963 Studebaker Lark. It looked fine in the pictures, the numbers however were too high. So based on the year, the condition and the options, I offered the man a fair amount using ebay's make offer.

He took it. And when the car was delivered I saw why. Sure the paint looked good - he used the pictures from the time he bought the car. The paint on the hood and trunk were toasted.

Mechanically, the car ran for about three weeks and then all manner of things started to go.

I took a $900 hit when I sold it because I was honest with the condition. Lesson learned - if you see car on ebay that you want, go inspect it yourself. In the long run, you're money ahead.

 

A few comments:

How do they or anyone know that any particular car is "clearly worth way more?" As people keeping saying on this board whenever a car's value comes up, "a car is worth only what someone will pay you for it." If you keep running an auction on a car and never get a bid close to what you think it's worth, maybe that's telling you something about what it's worth.

Again, unless they know the reserve, how can a bidder KNOW that his bid is nowhere near the reserve price unless he makes a bid? If you don't mention the reserve price in the listing, and if the bidder doesn't go through the trouble of trying to contact the seller, the ONLY way he'll know for sure whether or not his bid doesn't meet the reserve is to actually make a bid. If that bid still doesn't meet the reserve, he knows that what he wants to pay isn't enough to buy the car.

If you don't like people bidding well below what you think the car should be getting, then don't use a reserve price auction. Just do as jensenracing77 says and set the starting price at the minimum amount you will take. If you get even one bid, the car is sold.

Reserve-price auctions do have their place, though. A seller has some amount that he feels he needs to get for his car, but in many instances this is not a to-the-nearest-penny dollar amount, and he might drop the reserve if the high bid is close to what he wanted. For instance, if your reserve on a vehicle is $50,000 and the bidding stops at $48,000, you might take it. But if it stops at $40,000, you might not.

The exact same thing can happen on ebay. If the bidding doesn't meet the reserve, the seller can still offer the item to the high bidder at the high bid amount. The high bidder is not obligated to accept, but sometimes a deal can be made.

How many times has this happened on those televised Mecum auctions on HD Theater? Of course, auctioneers prefer no-reserve auctions because they know the item will sell and they will collect their commission. But they realize that not all sellers want to sell a vehicle or anything else that way, and because they know that there are always some sellers who will eventually drop their reserve, it is worth it for these auctioneers to take on the reserve-price items.

 

I've bid on two cars on ebay in my life. I didn't meet "reserve" either time. I've also sold one car and it went pretty smooth, and I got a little more than my reserve. Mainly because I knew what the car should reasonably sell for.

1st time, I bought a Hurst/Olds for dirt. Bid about 1/2 of what the reserve price was which I found out after the auction. Not because I was trying to underbid. By no means. I bid what I felt the MAX I was willing to pay for the car based on information in the ad. Seller contacted me afterwards and we negotiated the sale at my price.

Years later, I bought a mint 442. Again, I bid the max I thought it was worth, but it wasn't enough to hit reserve. No skin off my back if I got it or not. Again, seller contacts me after the auction. Again, we negotiate the price to what I bid.

I still have both cars, and I personally feel I didn't get "ripped off". But I can see the pitfalls.

 

I don't get sellers that won't tell you what the reserve is. If somebody wants to know if they are in or if they're out let them know. I once went to look @ a '71 before I bought my car. The guy wouldn't give me the reserve but my budget was $15K MAX. I go to look at it. The guy pulls it out of the garage with a for sale sign that says $24K firm. Thanks for wasting my time & yours.

 

I wouldn't have even bothered to go look at it.

If the seller doesn't tell me the reserve, I don't have the time to look at his auction
I most definitely wouldn't go see a car in person either unless I knew their asking price first.
You're almost guaranteed to be wasting a trip....

 

First, you should be aware of how ebay proxy bidding works. Let's say as an example there's a car with a $10,000 reserve and a $100 starting bid (yeah, it pizzes me off too when sellers do this...). Ebay does not allow us to know the reserve price, only the starting (or current) bid. Now say that I enter a proxy bid of $8,000. Since I have not met reserve, and the starting bid is $100, only $100 shows as my public bid. It looks like I only bid $100, but you can't see that I have set a proxy of $8,000 (which is what I may think the car is worth to me). And all I know is that the reserve is higher than my $8,000 maximum bid.

 

This is a switch most of the time there talking about how some one is trying to over pay for a clone or or or. Like they said You start the aution low a bidder has to start somewere I have got two cars on there. good luck

 

I think people are trying to test the waters to see if the car happens to have a low reserve, and if there is a chance to get that "great deal".. of course it will always bid up to "market value" (or, whatever a paying bidder or non-paying flake/teenager is willing to type into their computer that week, if you can call that market value)

I personally wish the minimum bid was always set at the reserve value; while having numerous bids does create a sense of interest as Ace's noted, I'm not sure what value it has as there is just a bunch of "what's your reserve" messages back and forth, and seemingly wasted time.

I just listed a car last week, a '65 Eldorado convertible project car, at no reserve $2 opening bid. A bit stressful/risky as it should be a $6K+ car, but these are the types of auctions that always catch my eye - low $ and reserve met. I think when people know the car is going to sell from the onset of the auction (excepting the flake bidders noted above), you can generate more real excitement early on. By the way, that the type of auction I bought my '70 Olds from - $1 reserve, closing bid $13K ish...

 

I treat Ebay a little differently than most. When I come across an auction I have an interest in, I think of a maximum dollar amount that I would be comfortable with after shipping/transport is included, and place my bid. They send an email at the end of the auction. If I get it fine, if I don't, well.....I just don't. I have held an account on evilbay longer than I can remember, and I have never been a slave to an auction waiting for the last second to try and out bid someone.

 

What you're doing is the sensible thing to do as a buyer.

However, as a seller, and I've sold many things on ebay over the last decade, I LOVE it when bidders snipe each other in the last few seconds. I've had numerous instances where something that had been sitting at some low but acceptable bid amount all week suddenly doubles or triples in price in the last two minutes. This usually happens with electronics, such as computers and computer parts. Whatever it is, I'm glad to take their money!