Your ebay fees will be smaller

The primary reason you want to do this, is because your fees will be smaller and you will make more money! Ebay charges the seller a fee based on the amount of the starting bid. If your starting bid is $10, you are going to pay a smaller fee than if it is at $500. And there are lots of variations in between.

Another benefit of starting lower is that it will encourage more users to bid. Many ebayers are bargain shoppers, so they are looking for a good deal as they are scanning the items. If your price is too high, they will just move on. If it is low enough to get them to bid, you just got a possible buyer who you would have missed otherwise.

And once you have them bidding, you are in good shape. I don't know what it is about the bidding process, but bidding wars very often will cause people to spend more than they originally intended. I am not sure if it is the adreneline or the thrill of the hunt, but it seems to be true.