Interesting article on eBay offer negotiations

[Exhibitman]

Obvious flaw in the research is inductive reasoning. They conclude that a slow response is indicative of something about the offer when it may just be indicative of having to go to a family dinner, watch the kid's Little League game, go to a religious service, or work the day job. Or maybe just a product of different time zones. An offer made at 7:00 PST to a seller in NYC may not be dealt with until the next day. I've made offers in L.A. and gotten nothing back until the next morning, usually because the seller is back east and stopped working for the night.

Mark, I don't generally use best offers but will send offers when eBay informs me that I can send an offer to watchers. Converts to a sale maybe 5% of the time.

Has anyone tried to set a Best Offer with a price way above the auction minimum? I've done that a few times when I put up an item that I think will get a lot of interest and that someone might pay a premium for it. I usually write what I am doing into the description. Doesn't work; usually it just confuses and then pisses off people.