Tim posted; "I do not understand how anyone could argue that shill bidding is ok."

I never said that it was o.k. Tim. I acknowledged that shill bidding exists and that the world is full of sharks who will take advantage of a given situation.

I've said that I'm comfortable paying a price I have in mind for an item that I want badly enough. If shill bidding was involved, then so be it. I may not like it, but the end result is that I'm happy that I won something that I wanted at MY bid (that nobody forced me to make) at a level that I was willing to pay.

I don't see what is so hard to understand about MY position ... but I do understand that others think differently.