Rick,
The bidders (unless they read Mark's message) don't have any idea what the reserve is. And, unless they bid at least $11.00 the first bid will only show up as $.99, even though they may have bid, say $6.00. It's only when the SECOND bidder bids that eBay will automatically raise their bid. And, the bidders may not be bidding more than $11 because they're factoring in the cost of shipping into what they're willing to pay for the chips.