Buying and Selling on eBay - I have been a big user of eBay in the past but I have to say that eBay has lots of problems.  Shill bidding is a huge problem.  This is where a seller uses another account or another person to artificially bid up the price of their item and/or to try and create a bidding war.  If done well it can't be detected.  However, in some cases it is really obvious.  I know there are sellers who don't see a problem with doing this, which is very surprising.  eBay will terminate a seller if caught.  There are also more scams popping up all the time.  eBay says they police the site, but they don't police anything for the most part unless it is reported.  They are overwhelmed.  If you use eBay, be very cautious.  I recently dealt with a seller with a perfect feedback rating of over 300.  However it turned out it wasn't this seller at all, but that the seller's account had been stolen by someone else looking to commit fraud.  So in this case going by the feedback would have worked against me.  The bogus seller was selling a high end guitar he didn't own.  Many times these fake sellers try and look for people who want to purchase outside of eBay.  If you send the money and never get the item who are you going to complain to?  If you use eBay, remember the old "buyer beware", "seller beware" sayings.  eBay is still the best place to find Wolfgangs and most of my dealings have been positive but just be careful.

Also, why do people bid early on an auction?  I really don't understand the rationale behind this.  Unless you think the seller will end the auction early and sell to someone else all you are doing is allowing someone else to see your bid in time to bid more or push your bid higher causing you to pay more.  The last thing you want is an emotional bidding war if you are a buyer.  It is exactly what you want if you are the seller.  I use a "sniping" service to place my bid for me in the last 10 seconds.  Some are free.  I use www.Auctionstealer.com  (there are other such services).  I decide the most I am willing to pay and forget about it.  And I can always change or cancel my bid right up to the end with the sniping service since it hasn't actually been placed on eBay.  This allows me to change my mind without recourse right up to the end.  Now you know how those last seconds bids come in!