Just a supposition, and I'm definitely giving them much too much credit, but I'm wondering if ebay started doing this now to help knock out the possibility of some nefarious activity. Say a buy-it-now card sells for a low price (due to a seller not realizing what he/she has, etc.), usually the sharks will immediately contact the seller and offer him more money for the card. Then next thing you know (as has been documented countless times around these parts), the original sale is cancelled for a completely invented reason and the card is sold to the other guy. If listings disappear immediately, it now becomes much harder to do those sorts of things. Of course, where there's a will there's a way, but it will definitely help with the situation I highlighted here.
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