I am currently the high bidder (with about 8 hours to go) on a car on E-Bay. I am below the reserve price, but I know I’m not that far below, because someone else bid about $700 more than me and subsequently retracted the bid (“Entered wrong bid amount”), and during the brief interlude that he was the highest bidder, he was above the reserve. Here’s my question:
Supposing I might be willing to go somewhat higher, is there any advantage to my waiting for the auction to end and contacting the dealer directly, as opposed to bidding online? IOW, is it reasonable to assume that a dealer would put a higher reserve price than the price for which they would sell it to you directly? I guess this question has to do with both common selling strategy and E-Bay charges/policy, and I’d appreciate some input from people familiar with the way these work.
(Of course, if I get outbid the question might become moot.)