The world of commerce has come up with lots of ways of allocating a small number of articles in a seller's hands to a number of potential buyers.

Among them are:

Unrestricted auction - The kind eBay has if there's no reserve and a minimum bid of a penny.

Unrestricted auction with a starting bid - Like eBays with some minimum bid. Most art and antique auctions use this method.

Reserved Auction - Like unrestricted, but article will be sold only if a (usually) nondisclosed minimum set by the seller is exceeded. Very common in the world of art and antiques as well, particularly when there may be a small subset of potential buyers able to bid. CC & GTCC used to allow this option in convention chip auctions.

Sealed Bid Auction - Sometimes called a 'one bid' auction. You bid the highest amount you will pay and other bids are kept secret till the established closing date. Sometimes provides for reducing the high bid to a stated bid-increment over the second-high bidder. Doug Saito uses this method for his chip auctions (but without the reduction of high bid feature).

***Note: "Gaming Archaeology" chip auctions start out as Sealed Bid auctions, and convert to Reserved Auctions on the final day, with phone and fax bids allowed, and current high bids disclosed.

Dutch Auction - Sells a number of identical articles at the lowest price that will match every available article to a bidder. Common in allocating financial instruments, e.g., US Government Bonds. eBay offers this as an option.

Chinese Auction - Works the reverse of the unrestricted auction: auctioneer starts at a offering price considerably above the perceived value and lowers it in steps until some buyer accepts the bid. Howdy does this sometimes in chip auctions at his "digs" in Minden.

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The point in my posting this is to point out these options are not something made up by eBay just to "make money". Most of these techniques are hundreds of years old and are used by lots of other parties, both within the chipping hobby and elsewhere. You are free to participate or not, based on your likes and dislikes.

You have to accept the world of business for what it is, not as something that you can change if you complain enough <g>.

DonL, auction seller, bidder, and (occasional) Reserve auction participant.