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Posted By: Bill Cornell

While I hate playing the devil's advocate, I feel it's necessary to point out a fundamental problem with eBay auctions, namely, that other bidders can see the names of other people bidding on the same items. This is a serious flaw with the fairness of their auctions that forces you to either overbid early or snipe at the very end of the auction to increase your chances of winning. No "live" auction has this problem.

I have some insight into the workings of eBay and I can tell you that they have no love of auctions - they'd much prefer to have the fixed-price format of their Half.com subsidiary. Their "Stores" effort is an example of where they're heading.

I fully agree that this seller is dishonest and should be summarily booted.