Maximizing Ebay profit: Auction + BIN or BIN+Best offer?

All things being otherwise equal, what is the Dope opinion on which type of listing is most likely to get the best price on a given item.

The options are:

[ul]
[li]Auction with low opening bid combined with Buy It Now option for the high price you really want or[/li]
[li]Buy it Now at the high price desired with option for Best Offers[/li][/ul]
The BIN + Best Offer is kind of a private auction, which is why it attracts me.

I never use reserve because I know how much people hate it, but when it comes to items of real value I get freaked out at the possibility of the item going for too low a price at auction, so BIN + Best Offer protects against that happening and therefore is my preference. But I wonder if that leads generally to much lower prices than in a straight auction.

So what’s the word from the Doper Ebay experts?

Oh, and obviously this assumes that it doesn’t sell for the Buy it Now price, der.