Clients are sometimes surprised to hear that all auction items start with $1 opening bids. Is this really the best strategy?
While Auction Ninja does not support reserve pricing, you can put a minimum starting bid on items. For example, if you have a super fancy sofa that you would like to sell for no less than $500, you can choose to put a minimum starting bid of $500 on the item. A bidder must place a bid of $500, or the item will not sell.
Here’s why we don’t recommend doing this. First, a high opening bid significantly reduces bidder interest. That can affect not just the item with the minimum bid, but the other items in the auction as well. Auctions involve virtual haggling and competition, and that’s what shoppers expect, whether it’s an item that’s valued at $10 or $10,000.
Auctions are a reflection of current market values. It’s not about waiting months for the right buyer to come along, it’s about quickly and efficiently selling to the highest bidder. I always tell clients to keep in mind the total value of the auction rather than the value of individual items. All auctions have a spectrum of value – some things will sell for more than you think, others for less. It can be difficult to predict where any one item will fall, but you’ll see things even out in the final sale value.
It’s also helpful to keep in mind that sometimes not pricing things leads to an unexpected result. Truly, you would be surprised what some items sell for, and often things you might have donated or thrown away. One recent example is a vintage Eddie Bauer down jacket we sold last winter. It was a nice jacket, but old – so what price tag would you put on that? Our bidders decided it was worth $600! Who knew? And who can forget the beat up bike we pulled out of a barn that sold for over $5,000. Or the Pyrex bowl an antiques dealer passed on, but sold for $800. While not every item gets those kind of bids, it’s a good reminder that market driven pricing can work in your favor.
You can view closed auctions to get a sense of what things sell for, though of course you can always reach out if you have a question about something specific. While we can’t guarantee what an item will sell for, we can give you an idea of whether it’s something that tends to see a lot of bidding interest, or provide some data on sales of similar items.