Not Setting BIN Until Later Auctions

[Tia Wood]

I don't know about the rest of DNF but I think it's unfair to start an auction and tell people you will set a BIN later. I believe if you have a price in mind, you need to state it by setting a BIN or no BIN at all. Setting a BIN later after seeing bids seems like baiting to me.

Also, it seems to be a way out for sellers who think they can get more money elsewhere.

[rockey]

totally agree with Tia.

[TheLegendaryJP]

There may be something in the rules about this ?

Personally I see nothing wrong with it. Gauge interest, set BIN. Just a business decision plain and simple. I set a BIN immediately myself but that is because I am not looking to gauge or get a valuation, I know roughly what I want and set a BIN should a buyer want it now. The bottom line is the price will be the price. When the seller gets an offer he should take and refuses and sets a higher bin its his loss.

[draggar]

I agree, set the BIN at the beginning. Also, people shouldn't set the BIN at the minimum they'd sell it for (rejecting all bids up to the BIN).

A BIN is not an opening price / reserve, a BIN is a price for a "buy it now".

[MediaHound]

Good topic, let us interpret the rules:
Rule #8 of the auctions subforum is currently:

8. You may have a buy it now price only in addition to your auction guidelines.

The rule does not have restrictions as to when the BIN may be added.

However, these two rules are very important:

4. You must specify an exact end time, of which time zone, and the date. NO "ends *hours after last bid" allowed. AT YOUR LEISURE, you may also allow for provisions of anti-sniping, so that a bid placed within the last 5 minutes of the auction would extend the auction by an additional 5 minutes to the clock. The standard to this rule, if its not exactly specified by the thread starter is this - 4 minutes remaining, bid placed, 5 minutes get added, so clock gives 9 total minutes till end of auction. If 1 minute or less is remaining, 5 minutes get added, so the clock gives 6 total minutes before auction closes. This is the standard to be used whereby anti-snipe is in place (and ONLY if anti-snipe is in place as would be stated by the auction holder). If anti-snipe is NOT clearly specified, it is not in effect. Anti-snipe is a new procedure in effect as of April 10, 2008 (4/10/2008).

5. No "reserve price" auctions. If you have a reserve in mind, start your auction there and no time is wasted.

http://www.dnforum.com/f150/auction-...ad-291685.html


I can see both sides of the argument though. I think the sellers deserve the benefit to post the BIN at their leisure. I think they should be allowed to have an auction and then decide after the start of the auction that they'll accept a BIN commitment.
A "buy it now" price added after the start of the auction may actually be detrimental to the final value of the auction.
As a bidder, it may be upsetting to see a BIN posted on an auction you helped run up via your participation. However, I think if we prevent sellers from posting a BIN after the start it will overall have more of a downside.
In addition, please keep in mind that there are no "reserve price" auctions. So if an auction hammer falls at said time and the BIN was not met, but there were bids, the seller is obligated to sell to the highest bidder.
Violators of the rules should be reported and the appropriate feedback should be left if you happen to be involved in a transaction gone sour.

[biggedon]

I don't know about the rest of DNF but I think it's unfair to start an auction and tell people you will set a BIN later. I believe if you have a price in mind, you need to state it by setting a BIN or no BIN at all. Setting a BIN later after seeing bids seems like baiting to me.

Also, it seems to be a way out for sellers who think they can get more money elsewhere.

usually this is done to get steady bumps.

members will "start them off" with lowball offers and the thread keeps getting bumped.

I personally don't like it either because it pushes other threads down the que, but it permissible.

it's the same with starting a LLL.com sale with $1 offer to kick-start. knowing that one would never sell it for $1

[Tia Wood]

I guess that does make sense on both sides. I guess it doesn't have to be liked but it does seem fair for both parties.