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Dan Mathewson...is another eBay "program" that they instituted because of bidders that are joking around or fraudulent in their bidding activity...the ones that come in and bid a billion dollars on Jimi Hendrix' boyhood house, or ten million dollars on the John Lennon fingernail clipping collection, that sorta crap.
Private auctions are usually for the sellers that want to make a ton of money on something and have something to hide. eBay's private auctions enable them to make their ton of money and, thus, eBay gets their sweet little percentage.