It's not a matter of you "can" have an auction where "Buy it Now" is left available until the reserve is met but in fact that is the only way that both a reserve and BIN (in the same auction) work. BIN will always remain available as an option until the point that someone has bid at or above the reserve price. It is sometimes a matter of trying to capitalize as David mentions below but is also a way to protect yourself as a seller that your item does not go for an amount less then you are willing to take. I use ebay for items that do not sell on the list or some of may accumulated British car parts. I offer BIN for two different reasons at different times. One is when I want to move something quick an not wait for an auction to go a full duration; in that instance I'll set a reasonable or low BIN price anticipating a quick sell. On other occassions I'll just put a high price out there just to see if someone bites. Oddly, BIN is one of the few values that ebay offers as it only costs $.05 regardless of the BIN price. Usually I only offer BIN when I have a very good idea of an items value. If I'm not sure, I usually set a minimum reserve to cover my cost and let the market determine it's final value.
Eric Elman
Somers, CT
> I'm fairly certain that you can have an auction where 'Buy It Now' can be
> left available until reserve is met, or have it disappear once a single
bid
> has been entered. I've often found that on a 'But It Now'/auction that the
> reserve is often not much less than the Buy it Now price.
>
> They are trying to capitalize on those that are concerned that they might
> get out bid in the end and would rather grab it and run while they can.
And
> sometimes it works.
>
> David Bilenkey
> Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org
> > [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of jerrymoos
> > Sent: December 13, 2003 12:42 PM
> > To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> > Subject: [CR]Strange Happenings on eBay
> >
> >
> > Can someone explain this auction to me?
> >
> > http://ebay.com/
> >
> > This auction for a Raleigh Team Pro ended with a Buy It Now, even though
> > there had already been 7 other bids. I thought once bidding
> > started, Buy It
> > Now was disabled. Even stranger, the buyer waited until almost the end
of
> > the auction, then paid $750 on Buy It Now, even though the next
> > highest bid
> > was only $425. Granted, the reserve had not been met, but if he
> > was willing
> > to pay $750, why not just bid that? Then if reserve turned out
> > to be $500,
> > he would still have gotten the bike, and saved $250 in the process.
Maybe
> > the seller clued the buyer as to the reserve price.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Jerry Moos
> > Houston, TX