EBay, Collectors, Flea Market & Antiques

I want to give people a good deal and start the bidding low, but then I risk selling a $100 item for $9.99. If you start the bidding at your lowest acceptable price, say $75, nobody bids. I do "buy it now" and offer free shipping on almost everything. It's less of a risk and less of a hassle for me. I started on ebay in the early days, 1998 I think it was, and it was a blast back then. The auction format was a real novelty and there weren't a billion listings so items often went to the stratosphere price-wise. My favorite ebay sale, from about that time, was when I put a miniature Oscar award up as an auction with a $500 reserve. It had been a table decoration at the Academy Awards ceremony in the 1930's. I met the reserve and then it just sat there. I was pretty happy, but was totally surprised when - in the last few minutes of the auction - the bid went to $5,000. Those were the days . . .