I just don’t trust ebay at all any more..
Lately, it seems like ebay has been indulging in more and more untrustworthy behaviors that enable sellers to, with a minimum of effort, get you to pay your maximum bid amount.
Two obvious ones:
1) with a shill bidder, have the bidder put a very high bid, and then retract. When a bid is retracted, the high-water mark does not move down, as it should, but stays at your maximum bid amount. handy for ebay, since they make more on auction fees, _really_ handy for sellers.
2) ‘Second-chance auction’. This one is beyond bizarre. You can sell multiple identical items, using a second-chance auction, for the same amount as your maximum bid.
In general, I think ebay is waning seriously in my list of ways to buy things.