Tips and tricks: working a reserve during a live timed sale

Timed online auctions reward attention. Not frantic attention — the sale doesn't need you refreshing every ten seconds — but informed attention at the right moments.

Here's what actually matters in the last hour.

Watch the gap, not the bid

The number that tells you something isn't the current bid. It's the distance between the current bid and your reserve, weighted against how much time is left.

A lot at 80% of reserve with twenty minutes to go is in good shape; bidding accelerates near close. That same lot at 80% with ninety seconds left is a decision.

Know which lots are yours to worry about

In a multi-consignor sale, most of the catalog isn't yours. Filter to your own lots first. In a 153-lot auction where you own 29, that's the difference between a readable board and noise.

Understand what "reserve met" is really telling you

Reserve met means the machine sells. That's it. It doesn't mean the bidding is finished — plenty of lots clear reserve and keep climbing.

The useful version of this number is the total: how many of your lots have cleared, and what dollar figure that represents. That's your floor for the day, and it's the number to watch, not any individual lot.

When to lower a reserve, and when not to

Lower it when the lot has drawn genuine bidding that stalled just short, the machine is expensive to store or move, or you know the underbidder is real and won't come back next month.

Leave it alone when there are no bids at all. A reserve cut doesn't create demand that was never there — it just sells your machine cheap to whoever happened to show up. No-bid lots are a marketing problem, not a pricing problem, and the fix is next sale: better photos, better title, better description.

Give the auctioneer a number, not a conversation

When you do change a reserve, it needs to be unambiguous and it needs to be recorded. "Let's see how it goes" is not an instruction. "Lot 045B, new reserve $4,100" is.

That's the whole design intent behind the live reserve tool in AuctionRoster: the seller sets a specific number, it's written where the auctioneer can see it, and it can only ever move down. No phone tag at 4:37.