slickeast wrote:If he wants a certain price, set a reserve.
Who do you think e-bay is going to back if he didn't pull the listing? The seller would lose. He would probably get a warning from e-bay about rules and policies for listing an item. Once you list an item you are saying that you agree to e-bays rules. This guy is adding his own rules to the auction.
These are just my thoughts and opinions, not backed by facts.
He did set a reserve, a reserve that floats with the price of spot silver. That is novel, and may bother people because it isn't fixed, and can't be pre-set, but it is clear, it is above-board, and it is indisputably calculable at time of auction end.
I realize that ebay rules can't handle that. I realize that this goes outside their rules. But rules are rules, not law, and rules can be arbitrary, and ebay rules are in fact often arbitrary and for the convenience of ebay and not the buyer or seller.
The primary question was, I think, is there something inherently illegal, unmoral, unethical, with this. The answer to that would be no.
That said, ebay won't tolerate this. But I like the idea of it.