This dead horse has been the object of untold flogging, and it will surely continue.
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=51443.0I will agree with much of what you said but there are some things that I must take issue with:
Amazing how a .99 no reserve auction can generate a TON of interest and bids whereas a $200 starting price garners no interest.
This may be true in a specialized scenario, such as where the reasonable selling price is $225. And what is "interest" anyway? Bids?
And then there's the psychology behind selling. Ebay is a very expensive place to sell these days.
You have to look at the ebay agenda through cynical eyes. Ebay makes their money on sellers' fees, which, I agree, are rapacious.
However, they do provide an invaluable service by putting your item in front of millions of buyers, worldwide, and no one else can offer anything even remotely comparable. For that, I am willing to pay them almost any percentage.
But ebay remains entirely focused on buyers, because they only survive by attracting buyers and keeping them happy. (I totally believe that as long as demand exists, supply will materialize to satisfy it.) Thus, ebay goes to extraordinary lengths to attempt to convince sellers to start low, and to encourage buyers to bid early and bid often.
They want buyers to engage emotionally with an initial desire to get a bargain, and to continue in a feeding frenzy of imaging that this thing, that they now want because they thought they were going to get it cheap, is about to get away.
A buyer cannot afford to become emotional on ebay, unless he has cash to spare.
But the cheapest way to sell on ebay is to NOT have a reserve and simply set your bid at no reserve or at a minimum selling price.
The cheapest way to sell on ebay is straight auction, short time frame, no reserve.
Ebay wants sellers to do this (ie charges the lowest fees in this mode) because it provides buyers the best opportunity for bargains.
This is not counter-productive, even though it accrues minimal fees on the individual sale itself, because in the long game it inflates the confidence of buyers to use ebay. The more bargains available, the more activity that will happen. If "activity" means "emotion" then I recommend that you stay away.
Sellers are always frustrated and angered when they feel that they have let a valuable item go too cheap, so I recommend that you never set your starting price below what you would reasonably accept.
Ebay loves to publish statistics to dispute this strategy, but you (and I am talking to sellers, of course) need to do what you are comfortable with.
Buyers will do well if they are patient and logical, and will pay far more if they are impatient and emotional.