I bid on a new item that the dealer is constantly listing with a $20 difference between the Buy-it-Now price and the listing price. Since the same item is constantly being put up, I decide I can wait the bastids out to save $20. So I bid the minimum and figure that nobody will bid against me, since they can bid on their own auction for the same damn item. Somebody bids against me. Funny, but no big deal. I bid on the next auction closing a few days later. Whatdoyouknow, some sum***** bids against me again. I start to get suspicious. I notice that in the completed bids listing, there are auctions for this item that expired without any bids.

Pretty obvious what's going on here. I choose a third auction and wait until about 3 seconds before it closes and bid the minimum. Win the item.

About a week later, I get an email from Ebay. "We want to survey you on your experience with this seller and this transaction," they say. That's never happened to me before. Obviously they've figured it out as well. So I tell 'em what I think.