I wish I can understand fully the mechanics of so called 'auction' especially through impersonal process. Maybe I can bid in an auction when I can see the person(s) but I can not imagine through the web. I know there are many legitimate auction going on in the web I have not tried it but I am tempted to do it but somehow my instinct tells me not to. How can you find it cheap when you have to outbid the other to a higher and higher price. The auction market is very similar to an oligopolistic market not totally competitive from the sellers side but buyers compete for the product- it is a buyers market so to speak. In this situation the buyers push up the price higher and higher every time they bid to the advantage of the seller. Buyers (bidders) are aware of this but why they do it? Beats me.

Is it possible that the sellers has a group of fake bidders to bring up the price to some level and then disappears in the bidding process and leave the real buyers (bidders) with higher prices in the final analysis?

The question is to bid or not to bid?

Leonidas