Inside the mind of an Ebay Bidder – Reserve Auctions

As mentioned Here

There are too many imponderables to tell whether this theoretical argument is what really counts in practice. So, Katkar and Reiley put the theory to the test by simply selling 50 matched pairs of collectible Pokemon cards, half with an open reserve price and half with a secret reserve price of the same level. Their conclusion, contrary to the theoretic argument, is that secret reserve prices are counterproductive. Far from stimulating interest, they seem to put bidders off, perhaps out of fear that a secret reserve is secret because it is far too high. Not wishing to waste their time, many of them just click “back” on their browsers and find somewhere else to bid.

Interesting to see. I’ve always hated unlisted reserve auctions anyway, guess I was not alone.