I am helping a nursing-home-bound elderly ham sell off his equipment. Some
of it is old equipment of "collector" status which I have no idea of the
value. Trying to find out a proper starting price for eBay auction, I asked
on a QTH.NET reflector of that brand for estimates of the reasonable value,
but did not ask for bids.

Got several private responses, one of which was a bid for one of the items.
The bid to me seems more than fair and we'd be happy to sell the item at
that price, but I feel uncomfortable that others didn't get a chance to bid.
At the same time, I don't want to look like we're trying to raise the price
of the item.

Would it be ethical for us to tell the group that we have a bid for the item
(not revealing the amount of the bid) and ask others who wish to send
private bids also? If we do that, should we give the original bidder a
chance to match any higher bid?

How can we be fair here, without starting a food-fight and looking like
we're trying to "milk it for all it's worth"?

Thanks for your thoughts.