In volatile markets, sellers often set the initial price well below their reserve price to attract a bidding war. This forces buyers to make their own determination of market value rather than anchoring to the list price. You most commonly see this in markets where there is a lot of price volatility or supply constraints such that it is difficult to determine a priori what a fair market price is, which describes a lot of markets these days.

Most buyers know this and bid their estimate of the fair market price, which may be well above list and hopefully the reserve price. This is a sensible strategy when the seller has no idea what a reasonable price actually is but there is a large number of buyers.