Reserve pricing on figbid-why

[snarfing]

would it be reasonable to list the reserve. or maybe like. a range? some number

 

[TorontoJoe]

would it be reasonable to list the reserve. or maybe like. a range? some number

I think anyone selling anything has the right to set their price. I'm actually not sure why it's called a "reserve" rather than a "starting bid".

 

[snarfing]

I think anyone selling anything has the right to set their price. I'm actually not sure why it's called a "reserve" rather than a "starting bid".

well i think the thing is people are not interested in clicking in, but why not just list the reserve when you click in? i kind of agree it hsould just be a starting bid but in theory i think its cause a seller may be willing to reach out to the highest bidder and see if they want it if it doesnt sell

 

[NYCfigs]

I totally respect that any seller has a minimum price that they are willing to accept for their tree. What I don't get is why a bid can be less than the reserve price. It doesn't really make sense to me why any system wouldn't just say, "you bid doesn't meet the reserve"

I'm surprised they don't do "soft closes". It seems to be standard procedure on auctions for capital goods

We used to allow bidding below the reserve. It became confusing for buyers that didn't understand Max Bids and the nuances of the different types of auctions. That caused bidder remorse. It would play out like this; A member wants to place a bid in an auction with a current price of $20 and a $100 reserve. At $20 the bid increment is $0.50. The member places their Max Bid of $105 and knocks out the reserve, immediately becoming the high bidder. When the high bidder becomes a winner they complain the auction was not fair because it did not follow incremental bidding.

This played out enough times that we had to change bidding to allow incremental bidding below the reserve. For all intents and purposes, a reserve auction could end with a Max Bid exceeding the reserve price, yet the auction will be unsuccessful because of incremental bidding. That makes sense but doesn't seem fair to me. We want to create a feature that will notify a seller their Reserve auction ended with a Max Bid exceeding the reserve and ask if they would like to offer the item to that bidder at the reserve price. I think that evens it out.

We can do a soft close. So, a late bid would trigger an extension of x amount of seconds as determined by figBid. At the end of the day, this is internet bidding and has to be timed one way or another. Instead of figBid forcing the issue, we want sellers to have the option of allowing a soft close. That would be cool. Bidders would be aware of the soft close before placing a bid and fans of the soft close would be able to search up and bid their hearts out.

 

[Italian4u]

would it be reasonable to list the reserve. or maybe like. a range? some number

If a buyer interested wants to know the reserve all they need to do is send a message to the seller. When people ask me I generally tell them. The site does not show the reserve.

 

[snarfing]

We used to allow bidding below the reserve. It became confusing for buyers that didn't understand Max Bids and the nuances of the different types of auctions. That caused bidder remorse. It would play out like this; A member wants to place a bid in an auction with a current price of $20 and a $100 reserve. At $20 the bid increment is $0.50. The member places their Max Bid of $105 and knocks out the reserve, immediately becoming the high bidder. When the high bidder becomes a winner they complain the auction was not fair because it did not follow incremental bidding.

This played out enough times that we had to change bidding to allow incremental bidding below the reserve. For all intents and purposes, a reserve auction could end with a Max Bid exceeding the reserve price, yet the auction will be unsuccessful because of incremental bidding. That makes sense but doesn't seem fair to me. We want to create a feature that will notify a seller their Reserve auction ended with a Max Bid exceeding the reserve and ask if they would like to offer the item to that bidder at the reserve price. I think that evens it out.

We can do a soft close. So, a late bid would trigger an extension of x amount of seconds as determined by figBid. At the end of the day, this is internet bidding and has to be timed one way or another. Instead of figBid forcing the issue, we want sellers to have the option of allowing a soft close. That would be cool. Bidders would be aware of the soft close before placing a bid and fans of the soft close would be able to search up and bid their hearts out.

If a buyer interested wants to know the reserve all they need to do is send a message to the seller. When people ask me I generally tell them. The site does not show the reserve.

I see your point. what i was thinking might be nice is either a) maybe reserve price is listed, b) maybe prompt the seller if they want to sell to the highest bidder anyway and c) maybe have an informational thing you can click like they do for what a cvc is on a credit card. explain a reserve is the lowest price a auction will automatically sell

 

[NYCfigs]

I just re-read thus because i was trying to figure out why there are so many of these on figbid. From what I’ve read the bottom line is that sellers sell more trees at higher prices using reserves so thats why they do it. As a buyer its super annoying and just makes the site less useable in general. You cant tell if a tree has a reserve unless you click on it, and the site refuses to incorporate a function that allows you to hide sellers. But where else can you go? Seems like there are few alternatives.

@SubmarinePete please see post #38.

 

[NYCfigs]

@NYCfigs Thanks for weighing in Danny. Yeah it would be nice for buyers if it us tweaked a little i think. I understand the use case you gave, and I remember REDACTED using it for that purpose years ago; although it was uncommon at the time, I thought it made sense. But now it seems like a lot of sellers are using it even though they know exactly what price they should be getting. It seems the reason they’re using it in my opinion is because when a person is browsing you see a good variety that’s listed at a lower price than it should be and you can’t tell that there’s a reserve price until you actually click on the listing. I think this drives engagement on those listings that have a reserve, and ultimately results in more activity on those listings. But I also think there’s a more subversive second order effect of this, which is that buyers find the site less usable and just disengage altogether.

Since we’re on the topic of Figbid site feedback, I don’t like that the site no longer displays who the last bidder was and what the price was. I like to see who I’m bidding against often times the people I’m bidding against are people I’m familiar with. Sometimes even when I’m not buying I just like to watch the bids to see who’s paying what. When that feature was removed, I think it made the site less entertaining and a place Im less likely to visit.

Just my thoughts.

I can't believe you remember that. I was going to mention then decided against it.

The following is off-topic. OP, please accept my apology.

I agree, the site is more entertaining when bidders are revealed. Can you believe there are some bad actors out there? We couldn't either. I'm being facetious. We stopped displaying bidder names to protect our members.

 

[TorontoJoe]

This is a great thread! Figbid.com is basically the stock market for figs. Members here have direct access to its management and as to what users want to experience there.

 

[NYCfigs]

I see your point. what i was thinking might be nice is either a) maybe reserve price is listed, b) maybe prompt the seller if they want to sell to the highest bidder anyway and c) maybe have an informational thing you can click like they do for what a cvc is on a credit card. explain a reserve is the lowest price a auction will automatically sell

@snarfing

a. We can add a "Reserve" tag or label to search and browse results. That is a good idea. I will submit to devs. Thanks.
b. We can create a tool that would allow a seller to sell to the highest bidder, but that can get complicated quickly. A better option is a semi-nuclear button for the seller that will allow the next bid to remove the reserve. Right now, if a seller contacts us we can do this for them on the backend. But I think it would be a neat feature for sellers to have the control. We can get this done.
c. I thought we had an informational for Reserve auctions on the listing page. I will test. If it's not there we'll add one. Thanks.

 

[SubmarinePete]

I can't believe you remember that. I was going to mention then decided against it.

The following is off-topic. OP, please accept my apology.

I agree, the site is more entertaining when bidders are revealed. Can you believe there are some bad actors out there? We couldn't either. I'm being facetious. We stopped displaying bidder names to protect our members.

Fair enough, but i mean everyone is using made up names… same as this forum. It doesn't seem that risky to me. Maybe i just like to like dangerously

 

[Higueras]

@snarfing

a. We can add a "Reserve" tag or label to search and browse results. That is a good idea. I will submit to devs. Thanks.
b. We can create a tool that would allow a seller to sell to the highest bidder, but that can get complicated quickly. A better option is a semi-nuclear button for the seller that will allow the next bid to remove the reserve. Right now, if a seller contacts us we can do this for them on the backend. But I think it would be a neat feature for sellers to have the control. We can get this done.
c. I thought we had an informational for Reserve auctions on the listing page. I will test. If it's not there we'll add one. Thanks.

any chance we get the ability to block certain sellers?

 

[NYCfigs]

Good evening figfanatic friends!

The Exclude Reserve Auction advanced search feature is now live on figBid. We added the new selection to Advanced Search and the left sidebar of search and browse results. Works good. Please check it out.

 

[TorontoJoe]

@NYCfigs I have to say... as someone who's totally frustrated with being forced to deal with useless AI support chats and emails that never receive a response... this is so refreshing....

 

[Higueras]

@NYCfigs please add ability to block users (sellers/buyers). Would be easier to purchase if I don’t have to scroll through sellers I don’t like.

 

[Figjake]

@NYCfigs please add ability to block users (sellers/buyers). Would be easier to purchase if I don’t have to scroll through sellers I don’t like.

Amen, there is 2 or 3 that sell the same listings over and over again that almost never sell. One is at terrible times of the night as well.