I believe you have all missed the most important point with the TA headset.
As has already been pointed out by a few people these are very rare and of a very high quality which will raise its perceived value. The item is furthermore NOS, once again great for improving the perceived value.
The problem now for the seller, if they intend to sell through ebay, is to find at least two of those rare people willing to pay the perceived value. Without two bidders the price will not go up. The demand for these items is very limited, so were it put up on ebay with a low starting price, it is quite likely that the seller won't find two of these fews people who want this item and are willing to pay a price comensurate with its rarity. So the only way to obviate this need for two bidders is to put a high starting price or a high reserve, both situations where ebay has made it very expensive for sellers. Ebay has recognized that this has led to many lost offerings for them (and lost revenue from this niche market) and therefore, from time to time, at slow periods during the year, offers cheap listing days. This headset was listed on just one of these days. In fact the listing fee of this auction was only $0.20 on the listing day, as opposed to the $3.60 it would normally have cost.
$0.20 is cheap for the publicity that they can get with this auction. If Curtis and Joel sell the headset outright with the listing, they have the perfect sale. If it doesn't sell right now, there is a good chance that those few people who may presently be interested in it know how to contact them and perhaps work out a more amenable price. It wouldn't in fact surprise me if the headset would sell shortly after the auction end.
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ
USA