just as a side point regarding ebay madness, the robot-bidder thing is
stupid.

Imagine an item with a starting price of $50 but a reserve of $100
I come along and quite fancy buying the item so I bid $150. Ebay places my
bid at $55 and the reserve is therefore not met.

Then the auction ends. I'm the high bidder with $55 but I can't have it
because the reserve wasn't met even though bid over the reserve amount.

STUPIDDD

"Brothermark" wrote in message
...
just as a side point regarding ebay madness, the robot-bidder thing is
stupid.

Imagine an item with a starting price of $50 but a reserve of $100
I come along and quite fancy buying the item so I bid $150. Ebay places my
bid at $55 and the reserve is therefore not met.

Then the auction ends. I'm the high bidder with $55 but I can't have it
because the reserve wasn't met even though bid over the reserve amount.

STUPIDDD


If the reserve is $100 and you bid $150, your bid will be $100 (the reserve)
unless and until someone bids over $150.

atg

"axtogrind" wrote in message
If the reserve is $100 and you bid $150, your bid will be $100 (the
reserve)
unless and until someone bids over $150.

No, you need to go back and read a little about bidding on eBay. The
reserve and the starting bid price are two different things. Brothermark is
right on, and it sucks big time. That's why I always include a Buy-It-Now
price when selling and first look at auctions with BIN prices when bidding.

"Thomas Bishop" wrote in message . ..
"axtogrind" wrote in message
If the reserve is $100 and you bid $150, your bid will be $100
(the reserve) unless and until someone bids over $150.

No, you need to go back and read a little about bidding on eBay.
The reserve and the starting bid price are two different things.
Brothermark is right on, and it sucks big time. That's why I always
include a Buy-It-Now price when selling and first look at auctions
with BIN prices when bidding.

Unless eBay changed their bidding rules recently, "axtogrind" has
it almost right. The first bid at or above the reserve price will be
accepted at the reserve price. In his example your bid would be
$100 until someone else bids over $100, then you would keep
outbidding them until they bid more than your maximum of $150
(which is probably what "axtogrind" meant to say).

One thing I learned is to put very low (preferably no reserve) on items.
Most people will not bid on anything with a reserve (or a very high one)
even if the reserve is only a 10th of what the item usually sells for on
eBay. Things will sell for much higher simply because of the "bidding war"
that goes on once a bunch of people have started bidding on it (which they
will if you have no reserve). I believe most people just like bidding and
feeling like their "winning" much more than the fact they need the item or
if it's a bargain.


"Analogeezer" wrote in message
m...
No suprise to most people here I suspect...

I've been selling old stuff on Ebay, mostly lowball stuff I wouldn't
bother even bringing up around here.

So last weekend I listed six items, two of which went right away with
"Buy it Now".

One of these items was only $20 less (20 percent) than you can buy a
new one for. Granted I had the box and all the stuff (manual,
styrofoam insert, etc.), I guess they figured it was good as new for
20 percent less so at least THAT made some sense.

I put fairly low reserves on all the stuff, and looking at the market
value of these items on Ebay figured that I should have no problem
meeting any of the reserves.

One of the items was a cheap Kawai synth...I didn't figure to get a
whole lot but I had all three manuals, the original box and inserts, a
RAM card loaded with third party patches, etc.

This one didn't make reserve at all (just over $100), kind of weird as
other synths of the same model with all the stuff sold for much, much
more...I've got decent feedback (all positive +15), I guess it was
just timing or something.

Here's the weird part though:

I had a Tascam 34 that needs work, cosmetically great but in the
auction I stated for repair or parts, right up front.

The 34 went for the same price ($86) that the synth peaked at....I had
not figured it would fetch that much.

THEN I sold a Peavey bass preamp, single rack space thing which went
for over a $100. That unit is in great shape, but did have a
flaw....the power switch is stuck in full time. But it went for over a
$100...its a Peavey?

I realize I'm comparing apples to oranges here...different kinds of
gear, but when a broken tape deck and a Peavey fetch more than an old
synth in excellent shape with all the accessories, ya just gotta
wonder.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitching here I did just fine...I'll
probabably change the listing, lower the price, sell the RAM card
separate or something, etc. but my point is that Ebay behavior is
pretty close to a entropic system; sometimes it makes sense, but not
usually g

Analogeezer

p.s. Oh yeah, I get it I need to say VINTAGE SYNTH next time... g

"Brothermark" wrote in message
...
just as a side point regarding ebay madness, the robot-bidder thing is
stupid.

Imagine an item with a starting price of $50 but a reserve of $100
I come along and quite fancy buying the item so I bid $150. Ebay places my
bid at $55 and the reserve is therefore not met.

Then the auction ends. I'm the high bidder with $55 but I can't have it
because the reserve wasn't met even though bid over the reserve amount.

STUPIDDD

Been there, done that as a bidder.

I think that's why eBay added the "But It Now" facility. Most people set it
at the reserve price and that breaks the log jam you describe.

Even more stupid are all the auctions I see close for over easy-to-find
discount retail pricing. The last thing I saw close like this was a battery
for a Nomad Jukebox 3. If you rummage around a little you can get them for
$32 plus shipping, but this one closed for over $40 plus shipping.

"Ricky W. Hunt" wrote in message news:gQy6b.377207$YN5.252595@sccrnsc01...
One thing I learned is to put very low (preferably no reserve) on items.
Most people will not bid on anything with a reserve (or a very high one)
even if the reserve is only a 10th of what the item usually sells for on
eBay. Things will sell for much higher simply because of the "bidding war"
that goes on once a bunch of people have started bidding on it (which they
will if you have no reserve). I believe most people just like bidding and
feeling like their "winning" much more than the fact they need the item or
if it's a bargain.


Yeah I've heard a lot of people say that but I usually set reasonable
reserves and still get a ton of bids...I think the Peavey got 14 or
so, some of my stuff with reserves gets upwards of 20.

I guess once I get more experience and confidence I'll probably drop
the reserve thing....the Kawai is the first thing I listed that didn't
sell with ease, I think it was a timing thing, one sold the week
before for almost double what mine peaked at but this week they were
cheap.

So far I've been selling stuff that is pretty well known, so I guess I
don't really need a reserve, but at the same time I don't want
somebody scarfing something for $10 and then I have the hassle of
packing, shipping, etc.

One thing that annoys me are auctions for stuff you KNOW is gonna go
high that say "NO RESERVE", like a UA 1176. Frankly I'd rather see a
reasonable reserve on that then somebody trying to suggest it might go
for $50 with NO RESERVE.

Contrary to popular belief around here, there ARE some buyer deals on
Ebay but it's not usually the first place I look and then I usually
pay top dollar. I paid a bit too much for a used SPX-990 a while back
but it was in mint shape, with the manual and the guy was cool....I
never could fine a used one that anybody had FS (that kind of says
something doesn't it?) except on Ebay so there you go.

Analogeezer

William Sommerwerck wrote:


I agree it's important to get people bidding, but a reserve is not an automatic
barrier to bidding.

I rarely use the reserve to sell. Only something that I am torn about,
not quite sure I really want to sell. Just decide the minimum you will
go and set the bidding there. Worse case, that's what you will get, best
case you will get much more.

The reserve can be used for an effect though. If you set it just above
the starting bid price, the first bid will meet the reserve, and the
rest of the auction will say "reserve met" and add to the excitement.





Remember that a reserve lets you set a much lower starting price, and that's
important, too. The reserve is your only protection against having to sell the
item for less than you wanted to.

I always do no-reserve auctions and start the bidding at the lowest price I
would accept in negotiations. I almost always sell the item at the first
auction... and usually for more than I expect.

"Analogeezer" wrote in message

Yeah I've heard a lot of people say that but I usually set reasonable
reserves and still get a ton of bids...I think the Peavey got 14 or
so, some of my stuff with reserves gets upwards of 20.

"DaveDrummer" wrote in message ...
ebay has good and bad times. sometimes theres people looking for your item.
some days there gone.

Very true, and yet like Analogeezer said, you see some strange
stuff. Like say several like items are being auctioned by different
sellers; sometimes one will be obviously in much poorer condition but
a bidding war will going on for that item while another in much better
condition sits idle!!!??? I've bought several things at a fair price
like that while watching others bid on the crappy one!
One thing I've noticed some sellers do to offset the barrier to bids
that a reserve sometimes imposes is to simply tell what the reserve is
in the description.

"Analogeezer" wrote in message
m...
No suprise to most people here I suspect...

I've been selling old stuff on Ebay, mostly lowball stuff I wouldn't
bother even bringing up around here.

So last weekend I listed six items, two of which went right away with
"Buy it Now".

One of these items was only $20 less (20 percent) than you can buy a
new one for. Granted I had the box and all the stuff (manual,
styrofoam insert, etc.), I guess they figured it was good as new for
20 percent less so at least THAT made some sense.

I put fairly low reserves on all the stuff, and looking at the market
value of these items on Ebay figured that I should have no problem
meeting any of the reserves.

One of the items was a cheap Kawai synth...I didn't figure to get a
whole lot but I had all three manuals, the original box and inserts, a
RAM card loaded with third party patches, etc.

This one didn't make reserve at all (just over $100), kind of weird as
other synths of the same model with all the stuff sold for much, much
more...I've got decent feedback (all positive +15), I guess it was
just timing or something.

Here's the weird part though:

I had a Tascam 34 that needs work, cosmetically great but in the
auction I stated for repair or parts, right up front.

The 34 went for the same price ($86) that the synth peaked at....I had
not figured it would fetch that much.

THEN I sold a Peavey bass preamp, single rack space thing which went
for over a $100. That unit is in great shape, but did have a
flaw....the power switch is stuck in full time. But it went for over a
$100...its a Peavey?

I realize I'm comparing apples to oranges here...different kinds of
gear, but when a broken tape deck and a Peavey fetch more than an old
synth in excellent shape with all the accessories, ya just gotta
wonder.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitching here I did just fine...I'll
probabably change the listing, lower the price, sell the RAM card
separate or something, etc. but my point is that Ebay behavior is
pretty close to a entropic system; sometimes it makes sense, but not
usually g

Analogeezer

p.s. Oh yeah, I get it I need to say VINTAGE SYNTH next time... g

Jason McClelland wrote:


This hasn't been my experience- for example- here is an auction that I bid
on:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...egory=38 074- I
bid more than the current price, but why hasn't the current price gone up to
meet the reserve? I had this same thing happen on a Twin last week- the
reserve was $350- I bid more than that, but the auction stayed at $250 until
someone started bidding against me to take it over the reserve,

Try bidding again or contact eBay. Something is not working right. If
you bid more than the reserve your bid should be accepted at the reserve
price. It has always worked for me.

-Rob

Why would you bid on an item with a seller that has a -1 feedback
rating?
How did you know the reserve price, its not listed? E-mail the seller?

read about ebay fees he

http://pages.ebay.com/help/index_pop...ll=basics.html

On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 14:04:53 GMT, "Jason McClelland"
wrote:


"axtogrind" wrote in message
...


If the reserve is $100 and you bid $150, your bid will be $100 (the
reserve)
unless and until someone bids over $150.

atg


This hasn't been my experience- for example- here is an auction that I bid
on:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...egory=38 074- I
bid more than the current price, but why hasn't the current price gone up to
meet the reserve? I had this same thing happen on a Twin last week- the
reserve was $350- I bid more than that, but the auction stayed at $250 until
someone started bidding against me to take it over the reserve,

Thanks!

~j

Nope, he is right and you are wrong. if the reserve WAS $100 it would automatically
go to that.

But the seller probably lied about the reserve OR he was otherwise mislead.

I have been on Ebay for years.

db

In article ,
"Thomas Bishop" wrote:

"axtogrind" wrote in message
If the reserve is $100 and you bid $150, your bid will be $100 (the
reserve)
unless and until someone bids over $150.

No, you need to go back and read a little about bidding on eBay. The
reserve and the starting bid price are two different things. Brothermark is
right on, and it sucks big time. That's why I always include a Buy-It-Now
price when selling and first look at auctions with BIN prices when bidding.



--
David 'db' Butler, Consultant
Acoustics by db
"...all the rest are just brokers"
now on the web at http://www.db-engineering.com
Boston, Mass
Phone 617 969-0585 Fax 617 964-1590

David, you are SO behind

D. Butler wrote:

Nope, he is right and you are wrong. if the reserve WAS $100 it would automatically
go to that.

But the seller probably lied about the reserve OR he was otherwise mislead.

I have been on Ebay for years.

db

In article ,
"Thomas Bishop" wrote:


"axtogrind" wrote in message

If the reserve is $100 and you bid $150, your bid will be $100 (the

reserve)

unless and until someone bids over $150.

No, you need to go back and read a little about bidding on eBay. The
reserve and the starting bid price are two different things. Brothermark is
right on, and it sucks big time. That's why I always include a Buy-It-Now
price when selling and first look at auctions with BIN prices when bidding.

Imagine an item with a starting price of $50 but a reserve of $100
I come along and quite fancy buying the item so I bid $150. Ebay places my
bid at $55 and the reserve is therefore not met.

Then the auction ends. I'm the high bidder with $55 but I can't have it
because the reserve wasn't met even though bid over the reserve amount.

STUPIDDD

If the reserve was $100, your bid would have jumped to $100. FULL STOP.

"Brothermark" wrote in message ...
just as a side point regarding ebay madness, the robot-bidder thing is
stupid.

Imagine an item with a starting price of $50 but a reserve of $100
I come along and quite fancy buying the item so I bid $150. Ebay places my
bid at $55 and the reserve is therefore not met.

Then the auction ends. I'm the high bidder with $55 but I can't have it
because the reserve wasn't met even though bid over the reserve amount.

STUPIDDD

The reserve is not usualy published so how do you know what it is?

Steve

In article ,
"Jason McClelland" wrote:


If the reserve is $100 and you bid $150, your bid will be $100 (the
reserve)
unless and until someone bids over $150.

atg


This hasn't been my experience- for example- here is an auction that I bid
on:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...egory=38 074-
I
bid more than the current price, but why hasn't the current price gone up to
meet the reserve? I had this same thing happen on a Twin last week- the
reserve was $350- I bid more than that, but the auction stayed at $250 until
someone started bidding against me to take it over the reserve,

Thanks!

Then there was an error. 'It doesn´t work like that.
A reserve is the minimum the seller will accept. You don´t probably know
what he wants. If the price of the item is for the minute $1 and you bid
$5 and his reserve was $55, it will stay at $1 until someone else bids
against you. If you bid $500 it will jump to $55. You are winning the
item.
Your above case is either not true or was a fault on that specific ebay
item (I have never experienced this despite having won or sold over 800
auctions)

Arny Krueger wrote:


On another occasion, I really wanted the item and was willing to pay a price
that happened to be over the reserve. I had a friend bid against me. We
cleared the reserve at a price I was willing to pay.

??? What do you mean you had a friend bid against you?

Last time I looked you couldn't bid against yourself and raise the bid
(unless you have seperate ebay id's). The bid never goes higher than the
current bid until another bidder raises it.

A newer ebay feature lets the seller accept direct offers while still up
for auction. Or you can always make a direct offer during or after the
auction ends.

Of course the original poster wasn't happy with his bids because no one
wanted them for his price. Many times its the NR item that gets higher
bids than the one with reserve.

A little research will show there's a strategy to getting the highest
price for your items.

William Sommerwerck wrote:

On another occasion, I really wanted the item and was willing
to pay a price that happened to be over the reserve. I had a
friend bid against me. We cleared the reserve at a price I was
willing to pay. I think he ended up actually completing the eBay
transaction because that's how the bidding worked out. Or
maybe it was the other way around, he wanted it and I bid
against him to clear the reserve price.

Whaaaaat?

All you have to do is keep bidding until you hit the reserve. You can raise your
bid any time you like, whether or not someone has bid against you.

In article ,
"Arny Krueger" wrote:

On another occasion, I really wanted the item and was willing to pay a price
that happened to be over the reserve. I had a friend bid against me. We
cleared the reserve at a price I was willing to pay. I think he ended up
actually completing the ebay transaction because that's how the bidding
worked out. Or maybe it was the other way around, he wanted it and I bid
against him to clear the reserve price.

surely you don´t need to? Just keep putting a higher and higher amount
until the reserve is met!

"Rob Adelman" wrote in message
...

Arny Krueger wrote:


On another occasion, I really wanted the item and was willing to pay a
price
that happened to be over the reserve. I had a friend bid against me. We
cleared the reserve at a price I was willing to pay.

??? What do you mean you had a friend bid against you?

Exactly what I said. We didn't know what the reserve was, so we found out by
experimentation. He put in a max of x$ and I bid against it until the price
rose to just over the reserve. Yes, we ended up paying more than we had
initially agreed on as the *limit*.

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
On another occasion, I really wanted the item and was willing
to pay a price that happened to be over the reserve. I had a
friend bid against me. We cleared the reserve at a price I was
willing to pay. I think he ended up actually completing the eBay
transaction because that's how the bidding worked out. Or
maybe it was the other way around, he wanted it and I bid
against him to clear the reserve price.

Whaaaaat?

All you have to do is keep bidding until you hit the reserve.

That may be true, but that isn't how this transaction went down.

You can raise your bid any time you like, whether or not someone has bid
against you.

I didn't know that would make any difference.

Brian Takei wrote:

??? What do you mean you had a friend bid against you?


I read him to mean he had a friend, and he bid against him, for him. g

Well, yes I think I know what he was trying to do. But he obviously
doesn't understand the reserve system. You are bidding against the
reserve until it is met.

-Rob

Arny Krueger wrote:


Exactly what I said. We didn't know what the reserve was, so we found out by
experimentation.

The only way to find out, unless the seller tells you, is to keep
raising your bid until you reach it. Having 2 people bidding doesn't
change that at all.

Last time I looked you couldn't bid against yourself and raise the bid
(unless you have seperate ebay ID's). The bid never goes higher than
the current bid until another bidder raises it.

That is absolutely, completely untrue. You can raise your own bid anytime you
like. And why not? -- there's nothing fraudulent about it.

In fact, it happened to me yesterday. I had bid $10 on a mint Polaroid 350. The
auction still had a minute to run (I bid early, because eBay seemed a bit slow),
and I was worried about being sniped. So I placed a second bid of $20 about 20
seconds before the auction ended -- which eBay dutifully accepted.

You can raise your bid any time you like, whether
or not someone has bid against you.

I didn't know that would make any difference.

It simply increases the maximum amount you're willing to bid.

Nothing "visible" happens if you haven't reached the reserve. But if you do, you
become the current high bidder at the reserve price.

William Sommerwerck wrote:

Last time I looked you couldn't bid against yourself and raise the bid
(unless you have seperate ebay ID's). The bid never goes higher than
the current bid until another bidder raises it.

That is absolutely, completely untrue. You can raise your own bid anytime you
like. And why not? -- there's nothing fraudulent about it.

In fact, it happened to me yesterday. I had bid $10 on a mint Polaroid 350. The
auction still had a minute to run (I bid early, because eBay seemed a bit slow),
and I was worried about being sniped. So I placed a second bid of $20 about 20
seconds before the auction ended -- which eBay dutifully accepted.

Sure you can bid as many times as you want and it only raises your bid
limit, but not the current bid. I just did this on an item and I raised
my limit three times while the current bid remained the same, and its
still below the reserve. The current bid appears to stay the same until
another party bids.

So exactly how does one raise the current bid above the reserve withour
another bidder?

steve wrote:


Sure you can bid as many times as you want and it only raises your bid
limit, but not the current bid.
Not the current bid showing, but it will raise the minimum bid required
for other potential bidders. Their new minimum bid will be just above
your highest bid.


I just did this on an item and I raised
my limit three times while the current bid remained the same, and its
still below the reserve.

See above.


The current bid appears to stay the same until
another party bids.

Or until you bid higher than the reserve.

So exactly how does one raise the current bid above the reserve withour
another bidder?

Keep up-ing your bid. You will know when you hit the reserve. Auction
will then say "reserve met" with your bid showing as the current bid.

-Rob

Rob Adelman wrote:

steve wrote:


Sure you can bid as many times as you want and it only raises your bid
limit, but not the current bid.
Not the current bid showing, but it will raise the minimum bid required
for other potential bidders. Their new minimum bid will be just above
your highest bid.

No, the minimum bid is still the whatever the next bid increment is, if
you bid that, it will tell you you've been outbid... until you get past
that bidders bid limit. But what if you're sill below the reserve at
that point? Someone else has to come by and raise the bid again, and if
they don't want to take it as high as the reserve? Sigh.. you're left
with a bid that's still below the reserve.

I just did this on an item and I raised
my limit three times while the current bid remained the same, and its
still below the reserve.

See above.

What if no one else bids? The current price remains the same...

The current bid appears to stay the same until
another party bids.

Or until you bid higher than the reserve.

You can bid $1M, but it won't take the current price any higher until
someone else bids.

So exactly how does one raise the current bid above the reserve withour
another bidder?

Keep up-ing your bid. You will know when you hit the reserve. Auction
will then say "reserve met" with your bid showing as the current bid.

In essence you're saying you can bid against yourself, but it doesn't
happen that way, you have to have second bidder to raise the current
price. One bidder alone can't raise the current bid, only their bid
limit.

In article ,
steve wrote:

But what if you're sill below the reserve at
that point? Someone else has to come by and raise the bid again, and if
they don't want to take it as high as the reserve? Sigh.. you're left
with a bid that's still below the reserve.

Well, yes! but only because you weren?t prepared to pay enough. The
moment YOU bid OVER the RESERVE, YOU are WINNING.
If you don?t bid over the reserve, you aren?t winning.

So exactly how does one raise the current bid
above the reserve without another bidder?

Duh... You just keep raising your bid. That's it. Why is this so difficult to
understand?

You know, I must be using a different ebay than you guys, because if you
are the current high bidder, no matter what you do, the current bid will
never increase unless someone else puts in another bid.

It's an auction, doesn't that mean without competing bidders, it would
only be a sale?

William Sommerwerck wrote:

So exactly how does one raise the current bid
above the reserve without another bidder?

Duh... You just keep raising your bid. That's it. Why is this so difficult to
understand?

I was the high bidder on an item, the current bid was below reserve, I
bid three more times (no one else bid during that time), the current bid
did not change, the only thing accomplished was raising my bid limit
each time.

Are you saying by being the only bidder you can raise the current bid
all by yourself? Please show me where that is possible.

steve wrote:
You know, I must be using a different ebay than you guys, because if you
are the current high bidder, no matter what you do, the current bid will
never increase unless someone else puts in another bid.

Then you haven't met the reserve! E-mail the seller and ask what the
reserve is, sometimes they will tell you.

It won't raise the bid unless you hit the reserve. If you don't hit the
reseverve the bid won't change, if you do it will. Obviously you are
not bidding enough.





http://www.vintagemicsales.com

"Rob Adelman" wrote in message
...


Arny Krueger wrote:


Exactly what I said. We didn't know what the reserve was, so we found
out by
experimentation.

The only way to find out, unless the seller tells you, is to keep
raising your bid until you reach it. Having 2 people bidding doesn't
change that at all.

Well of course nothiing bidders do will change the reserve. However, two
bidders have more control over the process - they can inch the bid price up
under their control.

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
You can raise your bid any time you like, whether
or not someone has bid against you.

I didn't know that would make any difference.

It simply increases the maximum amount you're willing to bid.

Nothing "visible" happens if you haven't reached the reserve. But if you
do, you
become the current high bidder at the reserve price.

That makes sense. The advantage of having two bidders is that something
visible does happen before you reach the reserve.

Well, of course nothing bidders do will change the reserve.
However, two bidders have more control over the process --
they can inch the bid price up under their control.

Not at all, Arny. Two bidders have no more control over the process than one.

If you're worried about going "too far" over the reserve (that is, you don't
want to set your proxy bid too high), you simply increase your bid a dollar or
two at a time (or whatever increment seems appropriate).

This is not against eBay's rules, and there is absolutely nothing dishonest or
unethical about it.

That makes sense. The advantage of having two bidders is
that something visible does happen before you reach the reserve.

I see what you mean -- you're uncomfortable not seeing a visible change.

One way to see if a change _has_ occurred is to look at the bid record. It won't
show the actual amount (until the auction is over) but the time at which your
bid was changed _will_ be updated. (I think.)

Arny Krueger wrote:


Well of course nothiing bidders do will change the reserve. However, two
bidders have more control over the process - they can inch the bid price up
under their control.

What exactly does this accomplish?

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message

Well, of course nothing bidders do will change the reserve.
However, two bidders have more control over the process --
they can inch the bid price up under their control.

Not at all, Arny. Two bidders have no more control over the process
than one.

Sure they do. They can make the price rise visibly to any level they choose.

If you're worried about going "too far" over the reserve (that is,
you don't want to set your proxy bid too high), you simply increase
your bid a dollar or two at a time (or whatever increment seems
appropriate).

That should work.

This is not against eBay's rules, and there is absolutely nothing
dishonest or unethical about it.

Agreed.

If people inch the price up to a certain level that is below the reserve,
and the auction closes at that level, then seller gets a message about what
the market thinks his item is worth.

I've definitely seen items come back with lower reserves after an auction
like this.