FREE: MR. TURTLE STICKERS (please read Mr. Turtle's political agenda)

Fact remains that if you paint birdcrap blue, it's still birdcrap. You have to trust the market to recognize what is an overpriced item. A higher opening bid protects the seller from "low bid rape", i.e. being forced to accept a 101 point bid for an item that's worth far more. Since there's no "reserve" here on Listia, you have no right to refuse a low-ball bidder. Over-priced "birdcrap" like, 100 points for a single sillyband, is the product of bonus scammers... listing bogus, overvalued items that everyone is too smart to bid on to scrape in bonus points. A higher starting bid or the ability to enact a reserve? It's the lesser of 2 evils, and a higher starting bid wins in my book.

I agree with all viewpoints, some things make me feel indignant that a seller would even try to con someone into a starting bid in the thousands for something "worthless" (again, point of view as to worth), but other things, like a Coach purse, might as well start at 10,000 because they always go way over anyway. However, the whole fun of listia is bidding and watching bids rise, watching auctions and having "bidding wars." I think GIN is sufficient....and anyway, like someone else before me said, those high ticket items will go for what they're worth no matter the starting bid, because the market realizes their value...and the trashy ones will also go for their worth (for the most part). I always start my items at 0 and never have had a problem by the end. :)

I do understand what you're saying, but for me I study the marketplace (in this case, Listia) and list things I know are likely to do well, rather than things that perhaps just I think are cool (with the exception of Mr. Turtle, who's here as my spokeman and very cool). I also study when things are likely to sell their best. Consequently the current system works well for me.

Then I see a doll listed for a starting bid of 2000 credits, and I worry that everyone else will raise their starting bids, in order to afford her and that if I don't I'll miss out.

I think it could be a while before everyone more of less agrees on the new inflated value of items, and that time could be a mess and unfair

I think if it was like "buy it now", where one HAS to use credits to put a start bid over 100, there's a minimum one can put (2000 for Buy It Now currently) and a percent taken IF it's bought that could prevent people from over-inflating their auctions in addition to protecting people from risking a huge loss.

How many turtle stickers do you get?

Haha, never mind, it said right on the picture. Thank you. :)

I like your turtles, very cute!

i know i used alot of credits for handmade trash... love the turtles too