This is a true fact. I read about it in the past, and have taken specific notice to it within my own store. It seems like it is the dollar amount, but it more so has to due with the seller's metrics and what the algorithm determines what you can handle. For instance, if your shipping is not 100%, they don't want to overwhelm you with orders that you can't handle. They know you can't go from 50 orders a month to 500 in the same period if you displayed that you don't always get 50 orders out on time. Perhaps they do watch the money, but only to keep you at par with what you've proven to produce well on...Another factor is stale content, if you're not keeping with fresh inventory they push the listings further down in order for someone who is listing fresh to get eyeballs on their ' new releases '. Every buyer in the trade, and eBay always want to know ' what's new '.
I've discovered ways around this problem and in essence building blocks for one's business. What has to be done is to run huge waves of desirable auctions whereas, you're going to increase your sales per week and deliveries per week. Maintain this over a period of time and it gives the system a chance to see that you can handle a higher volume of sales, thus increasing your throttled limit. It's not the auction format itself, but it's a way to quickly produce more data given by the sales you've handled successfully in a short period of time.
My suggestion for you is to round up a large group of items that you can part with cheaply and that are set to definitely get at least 1 bid and list 20 auctions that sell through a week for a month or so and I think you'll notice an overall increase in your BIN items too. You have an impressive amount of items, but they're all long-term holds which makes it even more difficult to showcase your stuff because of the niche aspect.
