I completely agree that this form of auction doesn't seem productive or positive - but not as a
general rule.
For example, when I had to sell that C-Mount 635 of mine, I
did know what it was worth. I had paid for it ~2 weeks earlier. That said, although I had put >$250 into it, some of that was actually less than the cost would be to reproduce it. But further, there was a limited market, so it required a specific purchaser, and demand was lower.
So an auction, was the best/only way to do it. That diode and equipment went for ~$160, but I had no idea ahead of time whether it would sell at a premium, loss, or dead on my cost in. Unfortunately it sold as a loss
Now maybe if I had just said $250, the same person who ultimately bought it for $160 via auction, would have paid that higher asking price instead. Who knows. My point is just that an auction setup doesn't necessarily mean you're putting profit above community. Or at the very least, it doesn't mean that's why the seller was doing it.
To a lesser degree, I'm not entirely sure what
this auction is worth either. I know that the 445nm blue would probably go for around $150 to $170. I know that the 12x seem to be about the same cost (though I think there is less demand for them). I know that 650nm reds could go for anywhere from $50 to $100. With that laser in the mix, and with the glasses I'm including (just a $10 value) this package could be worth from $360 to $450. An additional wildcard is that the "matched set" nature adds some appeal, but it also pushes the purchase price out of reach for some, and lessens the size of the potential market.
Long-winded story short - the auction seemed to make sense to me because I don't *really* know what this package is worth. Not for lack of effort in researching. Certainly not for trying to put profit above these ^ guys
But at the end of the day, I still agree that in practice, the auction just wasn't fun here. I'm going to let this auction conclude as an auction this evening, but I probably wouldn't do it in the future, unless it was a completely unique un-pricable item like I described earlier.
