Gunplummer said:An auction is an auction. It is pretty much a crap shoot for both sides.
Sometimes. Auctions, especially online ones can easily have shill bidding to drive up the price. Person A runs an auction(s) and has friend Person B bid on it to drive up the price. If Person B actually wins it, he can go through the payment process and have Person A slip him the money under the table. There may be easier and/or more sophisticated ways to do it but since I don't engage in that type of stuff, I haven't thought too much about the ways to do it.