What is reserve not met on ebay

Use TAB key to navigate results. Are you a seller looking to add a reserve price to your listing? Read our article on adding a reserve price to listings. Top Takeaway If you see "Reserve not met" after placing a bid, you won't win the item, even if you're the highest bidder at the end of the auction. Was this article helpful for you? You might also be interested in:.

Reserve price auctions can be a confusing topic for eBay sellers and bidders alike. Though they don't make up the majority of auctions on eBay, reserve price auctions are common enough that you'll likely encounter them eventually.

Make the most of reserve prices or decide to avoid them altogether by learning exactly how they affect buying and selling on eBay. When a seller lists an item for auction on eBay, they are given the option to supply eBay with an optional "reserve price" for the item. This price, which is kept a secret from bidders, is the minimum amount for which the seller is willing to sell. You can tell the item you're watching has a reserve price if the words "reserve not met" are shown beneath the current high bid for the auction.

If a seller supplies a reserve price and none of the bids reach that price before the auction is over, the seller is not required to sell the item to the auction's high bidder. The seller can take another stab at hitting the reserve price by relisting the item, but the original auction simply ends unsuccessfully.

The act of placing a bid on a reserve auction is no different from the act of placing a bid on any other eBay auction. Enter your maximum bid and let eBay's proxy bidding system do the rest, or snipe and wait for the auction to end.

The results of a reserve price auction, however, can be confusing and frustrating for inexperienced bidders. The seller isn't obligated to sell the item to you if the reserve price isn't met.

You may place a bid and end up as the highest bidder only to learn, after waiting days or weeks, that the reserve was not met and the seller won't sell to you. Whether you're using eBay's proxy bidding system or a sniping system when you bid on a reserve auction, you can't tell whether you're obligated to buy until the auction is over. Even if your bid doesn't meet the reserve price at first, don't give up and bid on a competing item. Competing bidders could drive up the price, and if you have automatic bidding enabled, you could end up hitting the reserve and winning the auction.

If this happens and you've also bid on another item, you'll be on the hook to buy both of them. Because of the uncertainty described above, many bidders are reluctant to place bids on reserve auctions.

As a result, it's common for reserve auctions to show a current bid well below the going rate for the item in question and for the item to receive fewer bids than a matching non-reserve item. On one hand, that means bidders have less competition for the item, but the lower bids make it less likely that the reserve price will be met. Reserve prices are often set by sellers just "testing the waters," or those with unreasonable expectations.

As a result, it's common to find that the reserve is not getting met, even as bids go higher and higher. Chances are, the reserve price on the auction is set at an unreasonably high level, and all bidders are effectively wasting their time.

Because they tend to generate fewer bids and are designed to protect a seller that isn't sure of the market value of their goods, reserve auctions are often used by new or inexperienced eBay sellers. Their inexperience makes it more likely that they'll be slower to communicate, offer customer service, or ship the items.

Colonel Panic Colonel Panic 9 9 silver badges 26 26 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. From eBay Community Center : It means that your bid your full, maximum bid, even if the full amount is not shown is lower than the "Reserve" set by the seller as the minimum sale price, and you cannot win that item with that bid.

Improve this answer. Community Bot 1. Julio Julio 1 1 gold badge 5 5 silver badges 20 20 bronze badges. That's indeed what it means. No-one else bids. Do I win? How much do I pay? It's been a while, but from what I recall, as soon as you set your max bid over the reserve, your current bid will jump to the reserve price.

Assuming no one else tops your bid, that's what you'll get it for. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password.