Selling on ebay - reserve or not?

[glasgowcyclist]

I'm about to put my HPV Street Machine GT on ebay and I'm wondering if demand might be enough to let me put it on at 99p with no reserve. It's a 1999 model with both luggage racks and in good condition, aside from a few scrapes you'd expect on a bike that age.

I don't want to put people off with a reserve and I'm hoping the very low starting price will pull a lot of folk looking for a bargain who might then get into a bidding war. It'll be going on tomorrow night and running for 10 days.

What do you all think?

GC

 

[cyberknight]

Depends if you have a price in mind you will not let it go for, i recently sold a frame with no reserve and i got 1p for it because even though there were loads of watchers no one bothered to bid but 1 cheeky sod who expected me to deliver .

 

[Night Train]

I would either have a reserve or a higher starting price on something like that.

I once sold a Sankey Trailer body and my late brother's MGB. Both only got one bid each. The trailer body got me 99p, The restored MGB £600.

 

[mrandmrspoves]

I don't ever bid on items with a reserve and when I sell something I start it at the very mimimum I would accept (in other words my reserve)
My view is that if an item has a reserve I may well be wasting time bidding on it.
The other problem is that more people are getting wise to eBay and bidding wars now tend to take place in the last two minutes of an auction.

 

[slowmotion]

Just decide what the minimum price is that you will let it go for. Set that as the reserve. If it goes for more, you'll be happy. If nobody bids, you'll be happy too. Simple.

 

[neil earley]

depends if the bidder really wants your SMGT allways had good revues novice friendly and a great bent to get started on, have a price in mind and hopefully someone will pick up a bargain. Good luck with your sale maybe worth a try on velovision small ads too

 

[Andrew Brown]

If something is desirable and you have looked at completed listings to check that is so then 99p start no reserve is fine. The clever way with something your not so sure about is higher starting price but list it on a free listing wknd so you don't pay higher listing fee...

 

[e-rider]

+1 for a starting price set at the very minimum you would accept i.e. if for example £200 is the very lowest price that you would be willing to let it go then start the bidding at £200 so even if you only get one bid, you'll still be happy.
I very rarely do auctions now after 'giving' loads of things away - I always do buy-it-now and ALWAYS sell the items in the end. Start with a high price, after a week bring the price down and so on, sooner or later it will sell, usually within the 30 days.
The problems come from ebay once you ship the item and the buyer claims it was lost in the post, or arrived damaged or not as described - ebay always just issue a refund to the buyer leaving you to deal with the loss, whilst the buyer gets the item for free!!!

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I hate trying to work out the psychology of different selling strategies on ebay. With one exception I've only ever sold a couple of bits of '50s furniture for a few pounds since that was cheaper than hiring a van to dump it. Then I didn't care how much I got, so long as someone took it away.

I did sell my old car as spares or repair (but running) expecting no more than £300 for it, with a start of 99p and no reserve. I was amazed to have two guys fight over it and I got almost £800.

A friend who sells regularly on ebay tells me buyers generally avoid reserve priced items or items with too high a starting bid. I suppose in my case I wouldn't take less than £475 for the SMGT but I don't know if that's realistic. I've not been able to find comparable completed sales for it.

Is it ok to post pictures and a description of it in here to get a rough idea of the right asking price?

GC

 

[e-rider]

I hate trying to work out the psychology of different selling strategies on ebay. With one exception I've only ever sold a couple of bits of '50s furniture for a few pounds since that was cheaper than hiring a van to dump it. Then I didn't care how much I got, so long as someone took it away.

I did sell my old car as spares or repair (but running) expecting no more than £300 for it, with a start of 99p and no reserve. I was amazed to have two guys fight over it and I got almost £800.

A friend who sells regularly on ebay tells me buyers generally avoid reserve priced items or items with too high a starting bid. I suppose in my case I wouldn't take less than £475 for the SMGT but I don't know if that's realistic. I've not been able to find comparable completed sales for it.

Is it ok to post pictures and a description of it in here to get a rough idea of the right asking price?

GC

start the bidding at £450

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I've put some photos in an album for anyone who wants to have a look.

GC

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Would you believe it!? Another SMGT has just appeared on Ebay and it's also in Glasgow, at an opening price of £399. I think I'll postpone putting mine on and see how this one goes...


GC

 

[smokeysmoo]

Don't forget you can always end your listing early if you want to, your perogative after all. The only time you can't is when it is going to sell and there is less than 12 hours left, other than that you can end it whenever you want.

It may be seen as bad trading by some, but IMO ebay is full of nobbers these days, and it's these nobbers that ebay look after rather than the sellers who make them their millions.

So therefore you have to look after yourself, which IMO means 99p start and no reserve to keep listing fees low, and if youv'e got one bid near then end just pull the plug.

You will probably get someone contacting you anyway, so odds are you'll end up dealing face to face and pulling the auction anyway for an item like this.

 

[Scoosh]

Will be interesting to see how many bidders there are for the other one ...

 

[Night Train]

I've put some photos in an album for anyone who wants to have a look.

GC

The photos with the cat makes it look like a child sized bike!