You may have hit a point in your message. My intuition would tell me that at times like this you would probably see a lot of people trying to sell items that they no longer need as they might be in need of extra cash. Problem though is that with all the merchandise that is up for auction, there are probably not so many people willing to buy. Those who do bid are probably less likely to bid as high as they otherwise might. I would think that it would not hurt eBay as much as they will still be collecting listing fees and the impact on commissions might not be as significant. That is assuming that I am correct that eBays commissions are not a true % but incremental based on numbers of dollars over the open? For the seller, on the other hand. Lower bids will have a multiplied and more significant effect.