Why?

Surely the minimum bid should be the reserve?

Why would you start an 'auction' at less than you are prepared to accept?

Are 'auctions' that normal these days?

I sell books. There are about 30k auctions out of several million book listings. And if I was to do an 'auction' it would be unlikely to be less than the BIN price. Or my acceptable 'Best' Offer for those I would contemplate BO for.

Plus it costs me 5c for a GTC BIN with BO. It would cost me $1.50 for a 10 day 'auction'. Which would mean I need to have a book listed, unsold, for 30 months to equal the fee for one 10 day auction. My auction start would be significantly higher than my BIN. And if nobody bought it in 2 1/2 years there is a fair bet it wouldn't sell for a reasonable price at auction.

For non-media, it is still 7 1/2 times more expensive for a 10 day 'auction' than it is for a 30 day BIN.

Simple. Don't start auctions at 99c.

Probably every newbie gets sucked into that. Most quickly learn not to.

I got one the othe day on a $45 item. It was submitted at $18, immediatly retracted as wrong amount and re netered as $8. I declined and they reoffered at $6. This on free post items that are going to cost $7 to post.I blocked them.

Aything 50% or less I decline without counter. Anything under 20% I often just block them, if I can be bothered.

I have a set amount I will discount.  They offer X which is either above my set minimum (which is the same for all items) in which case it is auto accepted. If below I counter with this standrad discount, I dont even check to see what the item is as the discount is the same for all. That way I dont get tempted to keep lowering my minimums, as there is no considering involved

Ridiculous offers as per previous post

I really don't understand why people would have best offer on all their listings.

Seems to negate the point of a BIN.

I have best offer on a few, more valuable, books, where I am prepared to accept a bit less than market value in order to move them. But I can also relist them at 5c per month for several decades before they seriously impact on my profit. And short print run first editions get scarcer over time.