Neither is logging on and buying one when they go on sale.

I sell a shit ton of high end collectibles on eBay. No issues. My stuff usually sells for high market value or above. No schill bidders needed.

And, I have only encountered a non-paying bidder once in 20 years.

Others mileage may vary, but there is little to complain about other than their Fee Schedule.

$6500 or so prior to Options.

Well, NOT Policing it enough and allowing it are 2 different things:

IF you report schill bidding, they will suspend / remove the offender(s) accounts.

BUT, they would have to be really lazy/ham fisted to get caught out

... and with eBay benefitting from the increased fees involved they ain't looking hard at these situations, unless they are forced to.

There's a Community?

Why wasn't I told about this?!

How long have you worked in Marketing?

I'll go with $12,721, Bob.

(We're playing Price is Right Rules, correct?)

Unless there is a category exemption I expect to pay about 20% (in total fees) on my listings w/ shipping included.
That usually doesn't include Insurance on high value items.

Obviously, I don't sell Pinball Machines on eBay, though...

Like all those people scrambling to sell me an Attack from Mars for under 5k!

If Definitions aren't your thing, then definitely.

This is the problem with the Sniper Services. Everyone's Final Bid is already in...without a new Bidder putting in a placeholder bid, we won't know where it will end up until it closes.

You slept in!

(wasn't that you?)

Generally, eBay sales are higher priced than most. I don't know if it is because of the knowledge of eBay's fees or their finance relationship with Paypal.

I sell LPs for 15-25% more on eBay than I do on sites like Discogs. Just the way it shakes out for some reason.

Could be the much larger and much less experienced /educated audience, too.