Strange Ebay advert.

I have just seen on Ebay a model railway engine (in which I am not interested) advertised as buy-it-now for £75 or start the bidding at £75. Why would anyone start the bidding at the same figure that they could get it for immediately? More to the point, why has someone advertised it like this? And it's not the first time I've seen this anyway.

BTW, I learnt something about Ebay bidding the other day to my great annoyance. I saw an engine that I did want, advertised as buy-it-now for £55 or start the bidding at £30. I thought that it was worth £55 but naturally wanted it for less if possible. I put in a maximum bid of £55, wrongly thinking that if anyone else put in £55 as buy-it-now, my £55 bid would take preference. I did not realise that any bid knocks out the buy-it-now opportunity!

Anyway, I did the buyer some good as it eventually went for just over £60 but I could have kicked myself. However, there is a reasonably happy ending to the story. I got one a few days later for £39.50 although it did not have a DCC chip already fitted like the other one. Still, the £15.50 difference will pay for a reasonable chip, although I'll have to fit it myself.