haytil
Super Freak
The thing is, auction buyers do not act as agents who operate based on rational self-interest. One tends to assume they are, but a good deal of research into economics and game theory shows that humans don't actually act that way, especially when it comes to markets and transactions like this.
Because of this well-documented irrational human behavior, sellers have to act in ways that either appear to be equally irrational or simply frustrating to those of us who are rational. Otherwise, they will be unsuccessful. Starting auctions at low prices (rather than prices that they would be happy to see a final bid at) is one of the strategies they have to engage in.
This is a different matter entirely. I believe that those listings are largely put up by the bigger sellers (who do thousands of sales a year), which gives them special privileges - Ebay allows them to place unlimited listings and doesn't charge them if they don't sell a particular item (unlike normal sellers, who don't receive a discount and often have to pay a nominal fee to list something, even if it doesn't sell). So they have NO incentive not to list something that they have no intention of actually selling.
The reason they put them up at such high prices is to influence the perception of the market, and get people to (slowly, over time) believe that these figures are worth more than they actually are. That way, they are willing to actually bid higher than they would have otherwise.
The big sellers are also selling items at normal prices (via auctions, not high Buy-It-Now prices), and benefit from the increase in final bids on those items that are due to misperceptions in value that they themselves have deliberately created.
Think of it like this: I've got a Batman figure that normally sells for $200. If I try to sell it, that's how much the average buyer will pay for it.
But if I place a "Buy It Now" listing for it at $600, and also a normal auction for it at a more reasonable price, then some people might believe it's worth a lot more than it actually is. Nobody will think it's worth $600, but they might start to think it's worth at least $300 and might happily bid up the normal auction that high, instead of just $200.
And if multiple big sellers do this, then people are more likely to buy into this false perception, because they believe everyone in the market has the same idea - that this figure is worth a lot more than $200. It's not just ONE crazy seller, it's all the sellers, and they can't all be crazy....right? So in buyers' minds, the figures MUST be worth a lot more than $200. So sellers are indirectly helping each other out by creating this false perception amongst buyers.
Of course, figures appreciate in value over time, but I believe these extreme listing prices serve to accelerate the rate at which the value appreciates.
