With the passing of the king of late night, Johnny Carson, I thought it fitting to start a new category here on TCB. I think it would be worthy of any of the late night shows. It will have to do with the comical stuff that goes on on ebay all the time and probably goes right past all except those it has affected or those of us who've been on ebay for a long time. Feel free to use the new tag and let us in on your "funny" experiences on ebay or any you happen to come across. This first story happened to me and it's "fresh"!

Auction #6144752150, started on 1/9 for 7 days with a start price of $225.95. Auction ends 1/16 with 8 bids and item sells for $429.

Duplicate auction #6147510286 started on 1/17 for 7 days with a start price of $225. Auction ends 1/24 with 1 bid and item sells for $225.

Now here's the "funny" stuff........The first auction while having 8 bids were really multiple bids by only 2 bidders. Was one a shill? Were BOTH shills?? Seems to me the only way the underbidder does not try to bid on auction 2 is if A, they are the shill or B, they buy a duplicate from the seller off ebay. I'm going with A since only one day separated both auctions.

I used to defend ebay saying it was a good indicator of the value of an item but over the past few months I've witnessed too many of these "Funny" auctions to think it is anymore. The purpose of this is not to point a finger at any one seller or bidder but to point out the flaws in the system and how one can take advantage of these flaws and those individuals who do not notice them. I know I'll probably get bashed here on the BB for this post as I usually do when I express my opinion about something but I've developed thick skin over the years and can ignore just about anything when I put my mind to it. If this helps just ONE person from being taken advantage of by slick sellers on ebay, I feel it's worth the pounding. BTW, the chip in auction 2 is STILL available for $375 delivered as MY test brought just the results I thought it would.