Hvae been asked what my reserve price is - am I allowed to say ?

[Themis]

Selling an item with a reserve on it. I have been asked a question asking what my reserve is ?

Am I allowed to tell them , I think not but am not sure. If I dont tell them what would my reasons be .

Thanks

You could say this is the very least I will sell at. But I want to let the auction go ahead. If for any reason the item does not sell then you can have it at this price.

I'd have a think about whether you want to tell them or not.
...I'm typing out loud here so hope it makes sense.
If they find out the reserve and don't want to pay that amount then they might not bother at all and just move on. But if they don't know the reserve then they might bid up to the amount they want to (and prob a bit extra as people get carried away)
What i'm trying to say is - the more people bidding the higher it will get and so....if it doesn't reach the reserve it will get closer to it with the help of that extra bidder - then, you can accept lower than reserve if you chose. ...and of course the extra bidder could push it way over reserve.

Gawd I'm rambling here - just saying the more people bidding the better for you.

Possibly send a friendly reply along the lines of - the reserve price is a reasonable one but you prefer not to reveal it as you love the excitement of the auction. You hope they understand and you wish them good luck with their bidding.

What 6Monkeys said, as it's far better than my advice

you mean i made sense?

Themis - bear in mind (you may well be expert ebayer and I'm teaching you to suck eggs!) that different people bid in different ways.

I've only bid on a few things and I would bid several times on same item up to (and beyond!) what I thought was a reasonable price. Dh on the other hand bids the figure that is his maximum and leaves ebay to sort out how much he actually pays, iyswim.

There's no point having a 'secret' reserve price if you tell people what it is! You hope that people will value your stuff higher than your 'very reasonable reserve' price. Answer that they should bid what they think it's worth.

Thanks everyone .

I often ask the reserve price and am always told. Need to know so not wasting my time when there might be similar things up for bidding.
If you want to sell then let them know! They won't bid if you're secretive about it!
SK