Several years back I sold some stuff on ebay. One was a book that I had several copies of and in my situation what would happen is I would list something at 3 dollars and nothing would happen or maybe it would sell for $3. other times I would start it at a penny and low and behold it would sell for 6 to 7 dollars or more. I think a couple of things happen 1) someone will do a search and put a bid on the lowest item, then never do a search again just try to win that item forgetting to do a search again 2) someone might put a bid down because its only a penny (you know, I could live without this but for a penny, what the heck) then once they bid on it they are expecting it and forget that they never really wanted it in the first place and 3) nobody like to lose, you bid on an item then you get caught up in the game. AND by starting at a penny you can get 2 people caught up in it right away because the first bid will stay at the penny, then the second sucker, er.. bidder sees that the item is at a penny and bids also.