Quote:
I don't know why bidders shy away from Auctions with reserves though.


Why not list the item at the lowest price you are willing to accept and let it go from there.
The problem with reserves is that there is no way to budget or know if your bid will be good enough. If you have a poster with say a $2500 reserve that you are starting at $9.95 - if I put in a snipe of $2487, not only will I not hit reserve (and most likely never find out how close I was) but I have no way of even budgeting if that bid will be good enough and plan expenses around it.
If on the other hand you started it at $2500, now I know what i need to do if I want to purchase it and can plan better.

Kind of on the fence on the whole "protect my investment" issue - I find that it usually means one has either overpaid for their purchase or has unrealistic expectations of market value. I recently sold 350 (mostly prime) pieces on ebay and am proud to say I had faith in the market, listed them all at $9.95 and did not put a reserve on a single one.
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