How do I know if there is a reserve on for a coin when bidding on ebay? There is no "Buy now" comment. Thanks, Chas.
"Buy it Now" and setting a reserve are two different animals... actually, there are at least three ways a seller can set up his auction... a true auction, with a starting price set by the seller; a reserve auction where the starting price is below the "reserve" (or minimum amount the seller will accept for his item); and a "buy it now" which in fact is not an auction at all, but has a fixed price for the item. Sometimes sellers combine the auction with the "buy it now" option, which never made much sense to me. Why not just run a true auction with a minimum set at the price you want for the item? Anyway, the "buy it now" option appears on the search page and listing page... I believe the "reserve not met" for reserve auctions only appears on the listing page. A quick tour through eBay's "help" pages should clear up any questions... maybe someone will post a link.
Thanks Jloring, That tidies somethings up for me. I searched the ebay help page before asking the question, but could find nothing on it (I'm a dinosaur when it comes to buying online). Now to go look for some things.
If there is a reserve and someone has bid it will show the "Current high bid" but under it will say "but the reserve has not been met." or something along those lines.
Then you have the Buy It Now or Best Offer which really isn't true because when you click to the individual page where the coin is listed the terminology changes to Make Offer. There is a great difference between Best Offer and Make Offer.
If you put the auction in your 'Watching' list, then it will show 'Reserve not met' when that is the case. I've also seen people just write to the seller and ask her/him what the reserve is. It struck me as weird but then again, why not?
