Rich, I have found that sellers either do as you do - "auction" their items by always using the same opening bid ($1, $.01, $9.99, etc.) no matter WHAT the item is, OR, they are trying to SELL the items on Ebay by listing at (probably) the lowest price that they will take for the item - and hoping for a higher price. Both the sellers in this particular case almost always list items with widely varying opening bids. Certainly these figures aren't just pulled out of thin air. I would have to think that they have something to do with the seller's 'perceived' value of the chip.