At least in this case, fees came into play. eBay used to have a tiered fee structure that benefited sellers of expensive items. Selling a $3000 watch 5-6 years ago would cost a seller maybe $80.

Today, it's a flat 10% fee. Add Paypal on top and you're looking at 13% of the sale price out the window. Add to that the crapshoot of dealing with potentially difficult buyers, and — again, at least in this case — it was really a convenience factor that came into play.

All of that being said, if I were selling a watch that had 14 separate bidders in the first day, you couldn't offer me any amount of money to close it early.