A reserve is the price below which you will not sell. It is the right answer for one item in twenty and the wrong answer for the other nineteen.
Where it is
In the listing editor, on an auction: Reserve price (₹), with the placeholder Optional minimum.
Next to it sits Buy-it-now (₹) — placeholder Instant purchase — which is a different thing: a price someone can pay immediately to end the auction.
Leave the reserve empty and there is no reserve. That is the default and usually the right one.
The rule the form enforces
Your starting price cannot be above your reserve: Starting price can’t be above the reserve price.
Which points at the real decision. A reserve is only meaningful when it is above your start price — a low start to pull bidders in, with a floor underneath. If your reserve equals your start price, you have just set a higher start price, which is simpler and reads better.
What buyers are told
They are told a reserve exists. They are never told what it is.
During bidding they see Reserve not met, and then Reserve met once it is passed. If the auction ends underneath it, the item does not sell and the room is told why: The reserve price wasn’t met, so this item didn’t sell.
On your side it closes as Auction ended without a sale.
Why not on everything
Because of what that last sentence does to a live room.
Bidders who put in real bids and lose to an invisible number learn something: that bidding here may be a waste of time. Do it twice in a show and the bidding gets slower on every item after it, including the ones with no reserve at all.
A reserve protects one item. The cost is spread across every item you sell that evening.
When it is right
- The thing you genuinely cannot let go cheaply — a gold piece, a graded card, anything whose floor is set by material or market rather than by you.
- A first show, where you do not yet know what your room will pay and one item going for ₹50 would actually hurt.
- An item you can comfortably relist. A reserve that fails costs you nothing much if you were happy to run it again.
When it is wrong
- On stock you want gone. A reserve on clearance is a contradiction.
- As a substitute for a sensible start price. Start at the number you would accept. It is simpler, it is honest, and it does not punish bidders.
- On everything. A room that keeps hitting invisible floors stops bidding.
Setting it, in order
- Decide the lowest price you would actually take. Not what you hope for — what you would accept.
- Set the start price below it, low enough to get the first few bids. That is what a reserve is for.
- Put your real floor in
Reserve price (₹). - Say on camera that the item has a reserve. You cannot say the number, but saying it exists stops the room feeling tricked when it does not sell.
That fourth step is the one people skip, and it is most of the difference between a reserve that costs you nothing and one that flattens your show.
If it does not sell
Use Relist auction — it runs again with new settings and you get Relisted — the new auction is ready. Lower the reserve, or drop it entirely, and start lower. How to edit or relist an item.
An item that failed its reserve twice is telling you the reserve is wrong, not that the room is.
One thing you cannot do
Once an auction has a bid, its settings are locked: This auction already has bids, so its settings are locked. Once it is live, the same: This auction is live, so its settings are locked.
So the reserve is a decision made before the item goes up, not one you can adjust while watching the bidding. Which is the point of it — a floor you could move mid-auction would not be a floor.
Questions people ask
Can buyers see my reserve?
No. Only whether it has been met.
Can I lower it mid-auction?
No. Settings lock at the first bid, and at the moment it goes live.
Does a reserve cost anything?
No fee. It costs you the sale when it is not met, and some bidding appetite in the room.
What is the difference from a starting price?
The start price is where bidding opens. The reserve is the floor below which you will not sell. Together they let you open low and still be safe.
Should I use buy-it-now instead?
Often, yes. If you know the number you want, Buy-it-now (₹) gets it without the theatre. How to price for auction.
More: what a reserve price is, how auctions find a price, the last ten seconds.