I made the original post that started this thread. Maybe the guy is smater than all of us -- maybe he doesn't know the value of the stuff, so starts his auctions off with a crazy high amount (which costs just a $3.30 listing fee), and then:
(a) if he's lucky, he sells it at that, or
(b) relists it for free at a lower amount, or
(c) most important, can get offers and sell it off of eBay and escape eBay's percentage fee, or at least learn about it through emails.
Robert