[donmuth]

There are some travel auction sites that work like this too. I haven't tried it because it seems strange to me. You buy bids up front for something like $1/bid. Then during the auction each bid increments the price by $0.01. That's why they can claim the final price is 99% off of retail. The catch is that the bidders have spent who knows how much money to buy bids to try to win it for that low price. The travel auction site I checked gave you credit towards the price of a future auction that you won. I think the key is timing it right such that you have the last remaining bid amongst the pool of bidders.

I prefer the good ole auction method of bidding real prices at the last second if I have to. I see lots of ways for people to get ripped off (shill bidding!!) on this new style of auction. Maybe I'm just old fashioned though...

Followup - Just saw on Scoreit.com an auction with a retail price of $38.00 whose winning bid was $0.96. Great deal huh? Yes for Scoreit.com!! If they sold bids at $1/bid that $38 item just sold for $96.96 ($0.96 winning bid + 96 bids*$1/bid = $96.96... if I did my math right). Even if they sell bids for $0.50/bid they still auctioned the item for more than retail. This is why I won't be trying this garbage anytime soon. *sigh*