EBay began as an auction format wheree things were listed far below their value and the bidding wars would bring the price up to what the market would bear.
Those days are long gone, many EBay buyers want to have their purchase in their hands yesterday so there are far more fixed price listings. Most sellers will list their item at a competative price (as experienced by recent sales of the same kind of item), some sellers with list them at list (retail price) and some seller just guess at a price. Regardless, most sellers do not go with their bottom number since it leaves them no wiggle room to make deals.
More and more on EBay we have seen negotiating buyers and we joined in that fray. It often gives us opportunities to negotiate multiple sales to the same buyer.
Good negotiating skills are an art where when done right, leave both parties feeling they got a good deal. It is always understood that the asking price is higher than the bottom number though. We often have buyers purchase at asking price since we are competatively priced to begin with
