Summary

• A reserve price is the minimum price that a seller has stated they are happy to sell for in an auction.
• If a bid reaches or exceeds the reserve, the listing will be sold to the highest bidder at the end of the auction duration. 
• A seller can choose to hide their reserve if they do not wish this to be public knowledge.

Details

The reserve price is the lowest price the seller will happily accept for a listed property.

Reserve prices can be hidden by sellers default. It can be as low as $1, but it must be greater than or equal to the starting price

How a reserve price works

If the reserve price for an active auction hasn't been met, the price will be displayed in red, and you'll see a note about it on the auction listing:

The seller can accept bids below the reserve price, but those bids can't win the auction. So if a buyer's bid has been accepted and this note is still displayed, the reserve price hasn't been met, and that bid won't win the auction. The buyer will need to make a higher bid to be in the running to win the auction.

Once the seller accepts a bid that's equal to or more than the reserve price, the auction listing is updated to reflect that, and the price is shown in green, and the following note is displayed:

Once the reserve price has been met, the highest accepted bid will win the auction.