I never understand ebay sellers who put starting bid and buy it now so close. Yes, the BIN price disappears as soon as bidding starts, but then why do both and not just one?
In the off chance that bidding exceeds the BIN price.
But if bidding kills BIN. So either someone buys for BIN, which means they were among the first to see it and thought bidding likely would have gone higher, or someone bids on it, and it sells for below BIN.
From a sellers perspective it's a win/win either way. If a buyer uses BIN, the seller gets an amount he's comfortable with immediately and the buyer gets the item immediately. Case closed. If a buyer places a bid for an item at somewhat below market value, the hope for sellers is that a bidding war will ensue. However, a seller will generally set the starting bid at a price he's equally comfortable with. That said, in the case of very rare items, a seller may set an
extremely low starting bid knowing that buyers are going to fight over it.
As a seller, I'm not a big fan of auctions because I generally see other sellers getting screwed by them more often than not.
While bidding may end up higher than the original BIN, it would go however high whether or not BIN was originally set, while BIN immediately caps the price if someone finds it and wants it.
It could also go lower than the BIN price, in which case if there were no BIN option, the item would definitely sell for less than the BIN price which is why some sellers offer both.
