Actually, I think it's because so many buyers dislike the auction format because of the waiting for it to end, will they get it or not?... should they even bother or just find something like it to buy now and be done with it. I think this option is so that a buyer can make his best offer and see if that's enough for the seller to accept. I don't see any harm done. If the seller wants to gamble that he can get more by letting his auction run, that's his decision.
Sorry, but that's what BIN/BO is for.
But then so many people are "afraid" to make offers because the initial "price is too high" but at the same time they "hate auctions" it's mind boggling.
It's been my impression that auctions are mainly run by new sellers who have little idea of how to sell online.
No idea of what their item is worth.
No idea of how and when bids arrive.
And total naivete about eBay's (at best) out of date or (at worst) misleading advice on how to sell successfully.
Today's buyer likes immediate satisfaction.
She likes Buy It Now and Fixed Price-- so she doesn't wait a week to find out she lost, or how much her purchase will cost.
She likes to know exactly how much she will be paying-- so she wants Free Shipping (which is just including the cost of shipping in the asking price) and she prefers Fixed Price/Buy It Now pricing.
And she even likes the Global Shipping Program* -- because she is paying her country's duty and sales taxes up front, not on her doorstep. And she sees how much those import fees will be.
She's shopping on her phone. -- any seller who hasn't looked at his own listings on a smartphone is working in the dark about what his buyer thinks she bought.
The theme here is simplification. Tell the customer upfront how much it will cost. Then ship it when the order is made and paid.
EBay has spent so much time working to the Quarterly Report, believing that their customer is the shareholder, that they have forgotten that the only money eBay ever got from those sharehholders is the money from the IPO. Everyone else bought on the secondary stock market and is a gambler with no interest in anything but the stock price.
AZ ignored the stockmarket, and even managed to go decades without making any profits, because they told a good story.
And now the story is turning into profits. After years and years of losses.
Meanwhile, eBay has been profitable since the beginning, currently earning about 45 cents per share, which the company hoards and does not distribute as dividends.
*Unless she's Canadian, like me and 35 million others.
