Something I picked up on a short time ago. A direct question was placed to the site operators and they kindly explained their 'system' wrt reserve values. Once a reserve is met (or indeed if no reserve is in place from the beginning) the listing heading states so.
I wonder if the seller (and others) are misjudging the car market, vis:-
a) bidders grow weary of seeing same vehicles unsold and relisted and know they have little chance of it being bid up to tip over the reserve and hence don't bid. I'll be honest, I was close to bidding this time, but decided I'd be wasting my effort. I don't need or wish for an investment, just another interesting car (to me) to use as and when as I don't stockpile cars, I use them.
b) an awful lot of people are in dire financial straits atm. Not the ideal time to be selling a car which, as an investment, won't appreciate much for the large relative outlay for essentially in many eyes, an E46 3-series tourer
c) threads such as these whereby apparent 'knowledgers' in the brand bandy numbers around and all are way below the owners' inflated mindset. If picked up by the bidders, this type of 'knowledge' may deter them. Now maybe if the seller were to offer us all a slice of his inflated value mindset, perhaps we could encourage the market for him
Cheers
Bobbly