... dissertation, Robert. You did make a few assumptions that took your discussion beyond the framework I intended:

1) you assume (for reasons which escape me) that only an auction with a proxy bidding system is "honest"; of course, many auction venues do not utilize a proxy bidding system --- whatever you bid IS your bid. It doesn't get knocked down to something just over the next highest bid. It is true that most of the internet auction sites appear to use the proxy bid sysem (I'm not familiar with all of them, so I'm not sure), but my original question was not intended to apply solely (or even primarily) to internet auctions.

2) related; you refer to eBay fees. As I've said elsewhere, my purpose in initiating this thread has nothing to do with eBay. Nor was it intended to address the relationship between eBay (or any other auction venue) and their sellers. If the auction venue is getting screwed out of their fees by the way sellers are manipulating their system, the system sucks and the venue will, inevitably, change it or go out of business.

And, of course, a good bit of your commentary addresses the issue of whether or not the auction rules should protect the stupid (sloppy, lazy or other personality defect). See my post to Larry H. on that subject.

Nevertheless, you have given us a lot of good food for thought, Robert. I will revisit some of it shortly. ----- jim o\-S