I registered to buy and sell on eBay back in 1997 when their emphasis was on catering to those interested in offering vintage items for auction. Over the years, and seemingly at an accelerated pace, eBay has paid more attention to developing their fixed price/Buy-It-Now sales of all products at the expense of those wishing to sell through an auction format. They have also emphasized buyer protections while seemingly not doing enough to bolster reasons why sellers of vintage goods should use the site. eBay has inexorably raised their selling fees and it is hard to avoid using Paypal and being nicked their ~3.25% fee, even though eBay and Paypal had a corporate parting of the ways ~two years ago.
Regular readers know that I have long bemoaned the "light touch" eBay takes in patrolling their listings. They introduced automatically relisting unsold items so now eBay's categories are often clogged with the same tired items no one has wanted for weeks and months on end. In short, it has become less of a desirable selling venue for those wanting to share their vintage treasures with a wide community.
As a less desirable selling venue, the risks of selling hard-to-find vintage items through an auction format with low starting prices have increased. I no longer believe that beginning things at $9.99, let's say, and allowing the eBay-defined market to set the price is the preferred route.
I feel that knowledgeable sellers of vintage Halloween items should use an appropriately priced BIN option with a Best Offer option activated or an auction format with a starting price that is no less than ~50% of SGV.
I don't feel this is an ideal new direction, but I do feel it is better overall than trusting a deteriorating venue to deliver desired results when using a low-opening-price auction format for vintage Halloween goods.