I know this may be somewhat off-topic (I did throw in the word Altair a few times though) but I can't help wondering now, what is preventing someone bidder's bid. The Ebay rules state (heh - you can believe me this time - I just re-read them!) "You will not be charged a Final Value Fee if: There were no bids on your item; OR There were no bids on your Reserve Price Auctions that met the reserve price." In this case the Altair seller could accept a bid of up to $9999 and end up owing Ebay $2. Perhaps the Altair's ACTUAL (=in his head) reserve is considerably less than $10000 and the person is simply trying to avoid the Final Value Fee. <G>But is this ethical? It should be noted that a winning BIDDER can also back out of a sale if their bid didn't meet the reserve.