Thats a good point Dave -- "looks like maybe just to keep porno buyers in their raincoats."

eBay says:

When to Use a Private Listing
While there are some cases where private listings are appropriate, such as the sale of high-priced ticket items or approved pharmaceutical products, you should only make your listing private for a specific reason.

I don't like private auctions generally (shill bidding). I see that the biggest seller of movie lobby cards and posters ( Bruce Hershenson, emovieposter.com) now uses that for all his auctions on eBay. (Previously he didn't have private auctions. I once mentioned the possibility of shilling on one of his auctions I won. He got very huffy. To my surprise, he blocked me from bidding on his auctions. And later he started going private. Hard to believe I could have influenced that! Only auctions I am blocked on, by the way!!!!) I think, among other reasons, he does not want people contacting his winners and bidders to sell them things, or to try to buy parts of a lobby card set, etc.

Robert