I received the following email from eBay today. It addresses some of the problems they were having with sellers trying to beat the system..

Example: Some sellers might put a $50 reserve on an item they KNEW was only worth $10 - Then no bidder would "win" the auction... and the seller could then contact the "unsuccessful bidders" and offer to sell the item at $10 - hence avoiding eBay commission fees...

Steve Snowden

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Dear eBay customer:

Our records indicate that you have listed more than one Reserve Price Auction on eBay
in the past three months. This message explains important changes to reserve auction
rules that might be of interest to you.

Reserve Price Auctions were designed to be used by sellers who (1) are unsure of the
real value of an item and (2) want to reserve the right to refuse to sell the item if the
market value falls below a certain price. Unfortunately, some sellers have been using
Reserve Price Auctions indiscriminately causing many users to write to eBay expressing
concern.

eBay found that since the reserve price is not revealed, bidders have no idea whether or
not their bids are close to winning the item. Because of this uncertainty, bidders are
discouraged from bidding and a high number of Reserve Price Auctions don’t close.
Sometimes, this is caused by sellers setting unrealistically high prices with no intention
of completing the sale.

To improve this situation, starting August 30 eBay will introduce two major changes to
reserve auctions:

1) The minimum opening bid must be between 25% to 100% of the reserve price
eBay will require sellers to set the opening bid in a Reserve Price Auction anywhere
between 25% and 100% of the reserve price. For example, if you are listing an item with
a reserve price of $100, the minimum opening bid must be at least $25. It could be $26
or it could be $99, your choice. But it must be at least 25% of the reserve price.

2) Sellers will be charged $1.00 for using the Reserve Price Auction format
Currently, sellers are not charged for using Reserve Price Auctions. However, Reserve
Price Auctions have a lower success rate and higher costs. Because of this, sellers will
now be charged a non-refundable $1.00 fee for using the Reserve Price Auction format
(this fee will be waived in the upcoming Free Listing Event).

With these changes, eBay hopes to encourage sellers to use the Reserve Price Auction
format appropriately and to set the opening bid at a more realistic price. Bidding should
increase and more auctions will close successfully.

If you have any other questions regarding this change, please visit
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/new-reserve-rules.html

We thank you for your support and ideas to make eBay a successful trading community.

Regards,
eBay