The seller can also lower the "buy it now" as the auction continues. This is a way to put pressure on the snipers why want the item at the reserve price.
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch
> 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
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Bilenkey" <dbilenkey@sympatico.ca>
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2003 1:04 PM
> Subject: RE: [CR]Strange Happenings on eBay
>
>
> > 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