What's Up With This 416?

[voice of the theater]

Yeah, I've never liked bidding on anything with a reserve. To me, it seems like an Ebay sanctioned method for sellers to "play games" with potential buyers. Once I wanted to buy an item with a reserve, and actually asked the seller how much the reserve was. He said he didn't want to reveal it and wanted to let the auction "play out" with the unknown reserve and I said thanks but no thanks...... When I sell something on Ebay, I open bidding with my minimum acceptable price. I know there's some kind of strategy to selling with a hidden reserve price, but I just don't get it..... FWIW, his buy it now for the 14's is $799 so if his reserve is (hopefully) at least a couple hundred less than that, $599 would be a nice bargain if they're in as good of working condition as he claims (they look to be in great shape and he does have 100% positive feedback).....

Edit: I just looked at his other items for sale and he's selling a COPY of a Dynaco PAT-5 preamp manual for $5. As much as I love vintage Dynaco gear, this isn't even an original manual and according to his description it's not even complete. "pages 9-27 and 30-34 are missing" Hmmm.........