I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY??

Some of the gang will know from my "New Camera - Old Lens" Thread that yesterday I won a bid on E-Bay for an item I've been trying to buy at a reasonable price for some time. I bid £50, which was £10 over the reserve price, and i didn't really expect to win the bidding as I never have in the past!
However, on winning I went through the procedure of paying for it and the price kept coming up £40, £10 less than I had bid, and that was what I was being asked to pay. Now when I enter any auction and win I would have expected to pay the sum of my last bid. So I contacted the Seller and was told "No, you only have to pay the reserve price, because you were the highest bidder"!!
I don't understand the logic of that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I've got a bargain as the same item in the same condition is commanding prices up to, on just checking, £145. But if the seller only wanted a fixed price for it why put it up for bidding? There were 3 other bidders as well
who had bid lower than the reserve price of £40 anyway. The point is I could have bid any sum I liked, £100, £1000, £10,000!!!!........and still would have had to pay only £40 Why didn't the seller just put it up for £40 in the "Buy it now" category.

 

Didn't understand that either!!

 

If you put in a bid of £50 but the next lowest bidder was only £39 then you win the auction at £40 , simples!

 

Still don't get it, JWK If the reserve price was what the Seller wanted for the item why not just put it up for sale at that price??? Why make people bid for it.??? Surely at any auction where's there's bidding the highest bidder wins and pays the sum he bid......not a £1 above the poor bidder who came second.??? I just don't see the logic or point of making people bid and then saying "I don't want the highest bid, just the reserve price".....just put it up for sale at the price you want!!

 

I very rarely win any E-bay bidding session, Joolz, as there are experts out there in the practice of "sniping" [bidding at the last second]. So I go in with a fixed price in my mind and won't go beyond that. If I get outbid that's just tough and I'll try again for another item if I think it's worth it. They usually state the reserve price on the side of the item section. I just don't understand why if, in the first place, they only want a certain price why get people to bid for it. Bidding is meant to get as high a price for the item as possible for the seller surely.

 

Still didn't understand that, Ziggy,.........speak English, Boy

 

Same as on all auctions I've been to Armandii, if you can't get there in person you leave your 'maximum' bid with the auctioneers, then during the auction they will bid for you on your behalf. This is why on ebay it sometimes appears you have been immediately outbid (joolz's post #5 above), it's because someone else has left a higher 'maximum' bid.

It's a good thing as you don't necessarily pay your maximum bid amount, it's explained on ebay's help pages:

"Everyone wants to win, but only at the right price. Although we suggest that you bid the maximum amount that you’re willing to pay for an item, you could pay less. As the listing proceeds, we compare your bid to those of other bidders. When you’re outbid, we automatically bid on your behalf up to the maximum bid you have entered. Your bid is increased by increments only as much as necessary to maintain your high bid position." (My highlighting).

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/bidding-overview.html

You should be able to go to the original ebay auction page (for your Lens) and click on the 'Bids' link, it will show you the amounts you and all the other bid, hoepfully that will make sense then.

 

That's right mowgley, also there's a chance to get a little more (from the seller's point of view), if you put a reserve price on it then someone might bid more than if you just had a 'Buy It Now' price.

Generally ebayers use 'Buy It Now' for new goods or items where the price is well know. But for stuff that isn't listed very often (and so the value isn't established) an auction format works better, i.e. let the market decide on the price. Wether you put a reserve on it or not is another option to prevent items going for pennies.

 

Thanks JWK, I do understand that now.........but I still don't understand the logic of it, if you get my meaning. To me an Auction is where the Seller is wanting the highest sum he/she can get for the item, not a fixed price, and so the highest bidder wins and pay the sum he bid. A friend of mine buys cars at an auction and he would definitely be pleased to pay a lower price that what he'd bid.....but he never can!!