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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;stldanceartist, post: 7791212, member: 13307&quot;]As someone who has both worked for an auctioneer and now someone who basically builds my own online auctions, here&#039;s what I think about starting bids and reserve prices:</p><p><br /></p><p>From the seller&#039;s perspective (and in my auctions I&#039;m technically also the consignor, as I&#039;m selling my own stuff off) I want to get the most money I can for my stuff.&nbsp; I want as many things to sell as possible, but not for pennies on the dollar.&nbsp; So I have to protect myself somehow - either by setting a reserve price, or by setting the starting bid at my reserve price.</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t really mind too much if a particular item doesn&#039;t sell (say, a silver dollar that only gets bids to $2 for one of a myriad of reasons) because at the end of the day I still have the item and I&#039;ve already done all the &quot;work&quot; (typing out the listing and&nbsp; photographing it.)&nbsp; I can just put it in the next auction where hopefully it will meet the minimum I need to feel comfortable with the sale.</p><p><br /></p><p>From the auctioneer&#039;s perspective they want everything to sell, because an unsold item does not earn them buyer&#039;s premium.&nbsp; Yes, they want things to go for as much as possible, but at the end of the day it&#039;s the sold items that matter, because they don&#039;t earn anything if an item gets to $1 million but the reserve is $1 million and 1 cent.</p><p><br /></p><p>Bidders want every item for as cheaply as possible.&nbsp; Bidders are also going to complain about something in your auction, no matter what you try to do.&nbsp; Start your items at $1 each with no reserve, they&#039;ll complain that $1 is too high or they&#039;ll expect free shipping.&nbsp; And sometimes they&#039;ll just disappear off the face of the earth after winning bids (but not paying for their items) meaning both seller and auctioneer lose out and have to then do a lot of extra work putting those items back into the mix.&nbsp; (<i>It&#039;s not always difficult, but I&#039;ve had people buy 150 items and not pay for them, which is a pain in the butt because I&#039;ve already replaced their lot numbers in the next auction, plus the reserve price of their items might have changed due to change in spot prices.</i>)</p><p><br /></p><p>Sometimes if you start all your auctions at reserve prices, bidders will not bid because they want deals (like silver under melt value) - so you can start your items with a low initial bid, but set a reserve price so you&#039;re covered in case your auction doesn&#039;t get the visibility it needs to get stuff sold.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the end of the day, you as a consignor/seller/auctioneer have to find a balance between those three sets of desires - both consignor and auctioneer want as many things to sell, for as much as possible, but the auctioneer has lower standards regarding final value prices.&nbsp; The bidders want everything as cheaply as possible, even if it means the seller takes a significant loss.&nbsp; As the seller, you have to find the spot between where you need (or want) to sell something and where a particular set of buyers is willing to pay.&nbsp; But you have to protect yourself first, because many things can cause your auction to slide completely under the radar.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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