Oh another way reseves could be abused. wasthinkin hat pople could shill teir itms upt ust beo he rseve an ake it look interestig. neve thought of te marketingspects. (darncomputr s hangng up agai)

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.