Auction Site Question

Psychology / marketing tactic

I have found different people define the word "reserve" differently. Regardless of how anyone defines it, this is how it works on Gunbroker: If a seller has a minimum amount they are willing to accept AND disclose that amount in the auction terms, it is essentially considered nothing more than a minimum starting bid. If a seller has a minimum amount they are willing to accept, and choose to NOT disclose that amount, it is then considered a "reserve."

I guess to answer your question, the issue could be boiled down to terminology, and whether or not the minimum starting bid is disclosed or not.

Personally, I dont mind disclosed starting bids, but I rarely will spend much time on an auction with hidden reserve. Just me though.

I think the seller wants to actually sell his/her gun and is telling you what his minimum price that will get the gun sold when they list a starting price on a no reserve auction. it's a reserve method without it being hidden. What I don't even look at are reserve auctions with ridiculously low starting prices and a reserve.

I don't' mess with reserve auctions. Some auctions with a reasonable starting point or .01 are more to my liking as the item's worth is determined by the buyers bidding. Then there's the low starting point and Buy It Now option. If I believe the BIN is within the value or close enough, though occasionally high and I want it, it's a done deal. Reserve auctions that relist repeatedly due to the seller setting his price way out of line are a waste of my time and I move along. Plenty of inventory to look at that has decent start or BIN options.

On auctions with hidden reserve starting at .01, I never go beyond .05......I don't waste my time trying to guess the minimum price it will take to win the auction.

I agree with everyone above. Basically put; reserve auctions protect/serve the seller - no reserve/low starting bid auctions favor the buyer.

In my view you should have a Reserve Price as the starting bid this way your are being totally honest about and up front about it.

Why does it matter? Each buyer will have a maximum amount he is willing to pay. If that amount meets the reserve, and he is the high bidder, he takes it home. If the maximum amount the buyer is willing to pay does not meet the reserve, he won't get the item.....plain and simple. I don't care what the reserve or starting bid may be, as long as it's less than the maximum I'm willing to pay. I'll jump in until bidding passes the maximum amount I'm willing to fork over.
That said, I think the reason many sellers have a low starting bid combined with a high reserve, is to confuse the psyche of bidders who would probably never bid on the item if the starting bid was high as the reserve, but once into the bidding process will allow testosterone to take over and start nibbling away at the reserve. I notice lots of items with high starting bids never get a single bid, even though the starting bid might be a reasonable amount. Auction bidders do some strange things...