Of course you are wrong about the low priced M8s being all Buy It Nows. Looking at the ones JSRocket posted quickly shows that all but one were straight auctions as show below. The one that was Buy It Now was from a dealer. (it did not have the charger, but still an OK deal after adding one for less than $100).
There are also others that sold in that price range - two were $1651 each (one Black -4 bids, one Chrome-6 bids) Plus there are more that topped out, but didn't meet reserve, at $1635/22 Bids and $1675/28 Bids, both a little high of course. In fact just as I was typing this I see an M8 sold for $1642 after 9 bids - and that was in the UK! I am not going to post links, but you should be able to figure out how to find these and determine whether they are Buy It Now or not by yourself.
When you ask for links at other sites, I assume you are thinking that items for sale always sell at the listed price. Many times that is just not true, most people post an optimistic price and are willing to go down from there. If you have a camera advertised for weeks at $1800 and someone offers you a done deal at $1600, you will likely be willing to take it - $200 isn't much difference, only about 11%. (I recently bought a camera for $2700 that was advertised intially for $3200 or so.) You should be able to do searches of forums to see M8s that sit unsold for weeks at $1800 and more - these will likely be sold eventually for hundreds less. You don't go to the car dealership and just pay the sticker price do you?
The bottom line is - given the easily verified evidence, it is silly to think that M8s can't be had for $1500-1600 and to assume that average eBay prices set the market price of private sales. Like I said before, some will over pay, and some will get a good deal. I know that for some people it can hurt to think the camera they bought several months ago could be bought now for hundreds less. That is just way it works sometimes; I try not to think much about the X-Pro1 I bought for around $1500 a few months ago that I could buy now for $1000-1100, but I don't argue with people about the fact that I couldn't get my money back!
Here are the facts about the JSRocket's links.:
$1216:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Leica-M8-bod...item337df02e7b - Buy It Now, sold by a well known dealer
$1515:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Leica-M8-10-...item4abef1ff59 - NOT a Buy It Now - this drew a single bid
$1615:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Unique-Leica...item416e002145 - NOT a Buy It Now - this drew three bids
$1640:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Leica-M8-bod...item3f1f482ea3 - NOT a Buy It Now - this drew two bids
