Another prospective buyer has emailed...

[CarmelitaMiggs]

asking if I have a Buy It Now price in mind. No one has yet bid but there are already stacks of watchers (not that that necessarily means anything, I know).

Am I right in thinking as long as there are no bids I can add a BIN price (which I suppose should be the highest eBay price a similar item has achieved recently?)? Equally, would that highish BIN figure turn off normal auction bidders? No guarantee this interested prospective buyer will go for the BIN price, after all.

eBay is like this thrilling parallel universe and I really don't want to blow my chances so any advice would be really welcome.

As I understand it, until there is a bid made you are free to add a BIN price at any point, but it does cost and if someone then decides to 'bid' instead of BIN, then you still pay the extra fee and the auction plays out as it would have done previously.

How many days are left on the listing? Most serious buyers don't bite until the last hour or so.

I always think it is a bit cheeky when buyers e-mail asking for a BIN price, and suspect they are trying their luck to get too much of a bargain. (Especially if you don't have a long history of feedback).

Will you get stung for fees if your item stays unsold? You could always re-list and add a BIN price next time if it doesn't sell, keeping this buyers details so that you can send them a message to let them know the item is available again.

I am always curious to see how an auction plays out myself - half the fun of it!

(I hasten to add that I am in no way an expert)!

I'm sure you are right and they were trying their luck -- anyway, someone has now bid, so decision out of my hands

I often list things with a starting price and a buy-it-now. I aim the BIN price at about 75% of the maximum similar things have sold for. This encourages at least 1 person to bid early if they don't want someone else snapping it up with the BIN. Then, in most cases, items with bids get a lot more viewers than those without, hopefully leading to more watchers and potential bidders. Of course it doesn't always work.