Thanks Redwick and Jambutty - these answers were helpful, although I've now received this notice:-
"We here in the Community team are aware of threads that are reporting issue viewing items using Internet Explorer. This issue appears only in Internet Explorer 8 and not in IE 7 or 9, Firefox, or Chrome. Please use one of these browsers if you encounter this problem.
We strongly encourage any member experiencing this issue to report it to Customer Support along with details of the browser version number and operating system."
Like Jambutty, bidders seemed to have no problems viewing or bidding, so all was good in the end. PS - I'm not a business seller, but I have been an Avon rep for 24 years and have accumulated lots of old stock over the years. Thanks anyway guys. x