Question on ebay bidding?

[Ian]

If the listing has bids on it, the seller cannot cancel the auction.
One thing people do is to get a friend to put a big bid in, therefor avoiding having to sell the item at a low cost to someone else. This is called 'shilling' and it's against ebay policy (it may even me illegal?)
If the seller wants a minimum amount for an item, they will put as reserve on, or set the starting bid at the point at which they make a profit, or it's worth their while.
If they don't do this, it's probably due to
1) The item is expensive, or troublesome to get rid of. It's much easier to have someone come and pick it up then struggle taking it to a dump.
2) The seller has misjudged the demand of the item. Thinking that a low start price will pull in more bidders, the strategy backfires and they are left having to sell it at a loss/little money or having to do something sneaky to avoid completing the sale.
3) They don't care what they get for it. Anything is better than nothing and lots of small items with small returns can build up to a decent amount of money.