Interesting tactic... what do you do if someone values it a lot higher than you do and they're willing to pay the inflated price? If you've been sitting on it for the last 12 months, I'm assuming that it's a relatively rare item otherwise you probably could buy it for the price you're expecting to get it at from another seller. I hope you don't miss out.
Unfortunately eBay is a necessary evil for those starting out collecting vintage.