what am I not understanding here

I've sold stuff online to people for way more than it would have cost if they'd just gone to store and bought it. Beats me.

That said, it may have something to do with keeping ebay fees in check if bids up and doesn't meet reserve or some such, kind of like how everyone used to list stuff for way cheap and make their money on shipping a few years ago, because ebay only charged fees on final sale price.