Yep, I have an MPire account, too. And like the service alot and use it alot. It works well but doesn't fill all the gaps for me as to my ongoing auctions and how well they are doing.
Have you considered not checking the box to use a counter with Auctiva? Then sign up for an account with Andale and they'll put one in your auctions automatically. Andale counters are free, too.
Like I said, I don't like the look of counters on my auctions. Nor do I want my buyers knowing how many hits my items have received.
I'm one of those that you refer to as those that like using Sellathon. (albeit it's not every month or every season)
For an example: How many will use the correct spelling for Sponge Bob as versus Spongebob.
If I have the item up as say...Spongebob and through my stats with Sellathon once the item is up and running I see no hits coming from the search of Spongebob but I do see hits coming from Sponge Bob. If the auction had no bids, then I would of course know to change the title of the auction to Sponge Bob, thus getting my auction out into eBay searches on a much more accessible search term.
And as we all know, searches on ebay need to be spelled a certain way to bring up searches correctly. I don't want to take any chances of losing sales due to saving a character on a title or not using strong keyword searches.
Then again..that's my opinion.
Also, and this is just my opinion, time does matter with BINs to me, however that's my opinon and that's what I've found works for me by doing my homework. I can tell you down to the half hour when my items get the most views..so to me...why put something up for BIN at 3:00am when the most hits come from another time of the day. You'll be down in the searches and lost if it's at a time closing or opening if your at a time of the day when few searches go on with eBay.
I know which part of the country is more apt to buy a certain item by experience of selling for almost 8 years. What is different is what parts of the country purchase items more than another depending upon the product.
When I see that a certain part of the country shops more at a certain time that readily buys a product more than another area of the country (Did you know that eBay shoppers drop by around 50% during American Idol viewing time and that rises and falls through the viewing times across the US?) then of course I want my item to go up at that time so it'll be viewed in the top percentage of new items listed or ending now items.
There are too many items on eBay to choose from and I want my items to have THE best chance of being viewed and seen and purchased.
Just my two cents,
Donna