A couple points: 1. Ebay has clear and simple rules. You don't have to like them, but that's irrelevant. No one is an "asshole" or whatever, if he plays by the rules. Changing the starting bid is *clearly* allowed by the rules. There's no point in whining.
2. Ebay is, in a sense, a marktplace for *information* as well. You often do not know (as buyer and as seller) what the item is really worth. When you place a bid early, you give your opinion on the item cost (to you) for free. When you "snipe" -- you don't. In fact, sniping would have been pointless if everyone could make a single bid, and the amount of that bid were confidential. >From here one can see that a) entering a "bidding war" and b) changing the inititial bid after an email exchange is essentially the same type of behavior. Namely, you change the amount you bid/ask depending on the additional information you receive (emails or someone else's bids) By sending email to the seller, you give him a gift of knowledge that there is some interest in this item. This gets reflected in the price. Since this is before the initial bids are placed, no bidder loses (you don't lose because you *chose* to give this information to the seller -- you didn't have to) By responding to your email the seller gives *you* a similar gift. Now, do you think it would be unfair if you made a bid depending on the response you got? Best, Mishka
