posted on March 25, 2001 01:42:10 AM
Hello,
I will soon be posting an item on a 10 day auction that will have a Reserve amount of around $1200. Any suggestions of where I should start the bidding at is greatly appreciated.
posted on March 25, 2001 02:20:31 AM
I seldom use reserves, but I think a lot has to do with what you are selling. For instance, if you are selling fine jewelry, you want to start your auction fairly high so buyers can see from your starting price that you are selling quality items and not just costume stuff.
BTW, I took a quick look at a couple of your auctions to see what kind of stuff you sell. You might want to take a look at that last item you listed. I think you forgot something.
posted on March 25, 2001 08:18:25 AM
Thanks for the info. Actually the story there is that I forgot to cut and paste my HTML Item Description in. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
The item that I will be selling (for a relative) is a pair of hand-crafted wooden dolls from the Precious Moments Limited Edition Collectibles line. There was only a run of 1000 of each doll made and they have matching number Certificate of Authenticity. The relative insists on a reserve auction as she will not part with them at a lower price than the reserve amount.
To the right collector these are very coveted dolls with the matching series number.
As you can see from my auctions, I'm not accustomed to posting high value items. I will run this as a featured auction and I am considering an opening bid of around $400 or $500 or about a third of the reserve price.
posted on March 25, 2001 09:22:35 AM
I would start bidding at $1. My thinking is this. It will generate more bids than a higher price. I think people are attracted to those items with the highest interest/bids. This assumes of course that there will be other items like yours listed. I also think a lower price tends to get people more emotionally involved in your listing.
I've seen many cases where an item starts off at $1 and eventually sells for $530. Another listing for the same item starts off at $500 and closes without any bids at all.
