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I was hoping for more. I guess I watched, bid and lost enough eBay auctions to realize that people would bid up the price of a used item well beyond the price of buying it new on any number of retail sites. The thrill of winning was the only explanation I could come up with.

eBay or whatever the "jar of coins" is, I try to figure out what it is worth to me before placing the first bid - and never go beyond that. If I fail to overpay, I'm OK.

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Back in the day, there was a certain exciting novelty to eBay, often for people who had little experience with auctions. People could also convince themselves that if everyone else thought something was worth more than they did, maybe they knew something--but most likely they didn't. So, yeah, the thrill of the hunt was certainly part of it.

I suspect some of those are shills.

The problem with eBay auctions is the time limit. It pays to "snipe" them one second before the close. I realized this in the early days of eBay, and within a few months everybody knew it.

eBay could fix this by not closing an auction if there are bids within the last 5 minutes, but they show no inclination to.

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