Ian, apparently you do not sell often on Ebay...

You are measuring success by the number of bids...wrong.

When a sale is offered correctly on Ebay... a bid is a sale..and the bid usually comes in the last minute of the auction...

What people do not see ..are the number of watchers and questions and offers sent to the seller...

Here are some facts...my Micro had 7 watchers and I had 4 offers to buy from as low as $420, and multiple trade offers..

My auction was a success, even by removing the item from auction...