It appears that somebody said, "We need to increase the retails on what we're getting at the auction site. I think I'll raise the bidding increment to $3.00 on most boxes and start the bidding on the lower end product at $5.00. It won't get us more $$ on the higher end, but on the low to middle, we should see higher margins."
I, personally, will never know whether the site's gross maintain margin increases as a result of the rise in the bid increment, but my gut level feeling is that the decision was made without testing the premise. Obviously, someone looked at the absolute number of bids per product and said, "Hmm, let's see, if there's ten bids and the bid increment is $3.00 instead of $2.00, we'll, at least, pick up an extra $10.00 a box." Boys...boys, a first year business student will point out the error of this reasoning. Now, count the bids per item, see if they increase or decrease; check the final retail and see if you're actually making more $$. Also, I see the Quickies are gone...Temporary? Permanent? Need more time than one day to get the retails up? Steve*R