Maybe you should consider that the buyer is living in Holland?
So the cost for him to go to Gun shows in US to maybe find a Garab is probably much higher than buying it at this price?
There aren't that many Visayan swords in Europe (except maybe in Spain?) out of historical reasons.
Ebay is very good for levering out prices. I am especially happy about it living in Europe and being interested in Filipino blades.
The only Garab I have been offered in Europe was from a dealer and he refused to go lower than $ 1.760!
So I picked up one at eBay instead for a price that probably was $ 100 higher than most of you would consider fair?
But I was, and still am, very happy with that price considering my alternatives.
FYI I have bought rare Indonesian swords from the same dealer at prices that I could double anytime if I would like to sell them in Holland or US.
The specific guy you are discussing is however quite used to eBay and maybe in this case it was also a combination of 2 snipers at once who had a bit to high max bids?
Sometimes happens to me also
But in the long run...
Michael