Reserve Price in Oz?

[glenbankloel]

Is it possible to put Reserve price on Australian listings? 

[phorum_junkie*]

Ebay Australia as never had reserves except for cars, thank goodness.

Sellers think they are a good idea but they annoy buyers which why is why they removed reserves on the UK site for items under £50 ($75).

Back when they were allowed and there were no free listings it allowed sellers to start items at a low price thus saving insertion fees without risking it selling for too little but by the time you put so many buyers off especially if it was a hidden reserve and you had paid the reserve fee you usually ended no better and often worse off.

Now casual sellers get 30 free listings a month regardless of the start price you can start your auction at the lowest price you are happy to sell it at and you lose nothing if it doesn't sell.

[gec2002]

"Ebay Australia as never had reserves except for cars, thank goodness"

Wrong

In the early days of eBay in Australia it was possible to set a reserve.  Not sure of the date but it was in the very early days, ended about mid 2004. It cost a small amount to use a reserve, again not sure but something less than a $1 for memory.

It was very good to get people into your auctions by starting at a low price and really build some interest in what you were selling.  Ebay used one of its famous "have you stopped beating your wife surveys" to prove that sellers didn't want a reserve, and it improves the buying experience by not having it.  Goes to show that they didn't really care about sellers even in the good old days.  Either that or their accountants must have shown them they would be a $1/year better off by removing it 

[phorum_junkie*]

I would dispute the fact that reserves were allowed on the Au site in 2004, I have been selling over here longer than that and have never known reserves to be an option.

Anyway regardless of your opinion of reserves I am still wondering how it took the OP more than a minute to find the information through the links in the site map.

[gec2002]

Dispute away, but here's the evidence that you are wrong.

http://pages.ebay.com.au/sellercentral/reserves.html

[cathy1971]

PJ I am sorry but get is correct.  There were reserve auctions very early on.  I remember them.  I have been a member since 2001 and they definately did exist.  I didn't like them so I am glad they got rid of them.

cathy

[cathy1971]

gec sorry. I hate when it auto spells for you. Lol

[zenremix777]

eBay have started to phase out auctions even more now by putting Ending Soonest as the default value instead of Best Match. Previously, Best Match would allow an auction higher priority over Buy It Now's (in search results) if both were ending at the same time. Not so anymore.

So, you may want to consider doing Buy It Now and for an extra 10c you can allow people to make offers. That way, you set it at the ideal target price but can accept lower offers if you wish.

It's similar to a reserve price because you have the option of not accepting anything other than your ideal price, which is the Buy It Now price, yet people can still "bid" in a sense, as far as offering a price that they think it's worth.

[caroldon2000]

I used eBay when I lived in the States and found the reserve a great asset as a seller. At least you could get bids under way without having to start so high that no one bids. I wonder why the Oz staff think people in Australia are different. I would certainly prefer to have it now that I live here.

Trademe in NZ is a true auction and extends the finish time by 2 minutes when there is a bid in the last 2 minutes. At one time it had 60% of internet traffic in NZ before it sold to and Australian company (Fairfax?) for $700M. Maybe that's why eBay has no traction in New Zealand.

I would bet that eBayOZ loose a lot of potential seller/customers because as nubies they list their prized posessions at such a high starting price that they never get any bids, then finally give up eBay as a waste of time. 

[go-tazz]

Why drag up an old thread,it's been nine months since that previous reply was posted.

As for the extend an auction,forget it it's a waste of time as it stops people bidding,(tried it at another site and I couldn't sell a thing until I took the auto extend off).

Buyers don't like reserves,so the wouldn't bid on items that have one,(hence,why a lot of cars,etc don't sell).

[matthk777]

I can't seem to do it! But this (Australian) eBay help page says YES...
http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/reserve.html