Roger Halstead writes:

According to the subject line, it's the "opening bid."

It is the reserve.

In your world maybe. Not in eBay.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/buyer-reserve.html

The only difference is a reserve isn't posted and a minimum bid is.

Yup. They're different.

Essentially they are still the same thing.

Except that they're different. They might have the same effect on
*you* but not on many others.

'course you could say that a Warrior and a 172 are the "same thing"
and a lot of people would probably agree with you. Doesn't mean
you're right and you'd certainly be out of line if you ripped on
someone who knew better.

You just know one and have
to find the other.

In both cases whey will not sell below that figure.

Actually reserves are a bit more flexible. At least the seller *can*
choose to sell to someone who bids below the reserve.

I still prefer not dealing with a reserve. I gather a lot of other
people do too since it's often a prominent feature of an auction.

--kyler