11/7    Please explain why people who paid too much for items on eBay
        deserve restitution? If the price got too high they should have
        pulled out. I have been to real-live antique auctions and they
        have no qualms about telling you that there may be bidders working
        for the auction house - same as poker players in Vegas. Never bid
        more than it's worth to you. I don't see the illegality here.
        \_ Uhm, no. It is generally breach of contract
           to have agents of the auctioneer
           to be competing for bidding on goods. The Universal Commercial
           Code, adopted by the majority of states and highly persuasive
           in Federal Courts has a specific subsection on this. Essentially
           Ebay can get sued in any of the fifty states plus Federal Courts
           by its customers. In fact, if this were to actually happen it
           would be grounds for a very large class action lawsuit. In addition,
           certain states have specific statutes derived from the UCC
           that specifically prohibit this practice. This has been a
           very classic case in contract law. -williamc
           \_ As an aside, I believe it's also specifically against eBay's
              terms of use.  -John
           \_ Having been to auctions I can tell you that it is common
              for there to be bidders working for a salary. I don't recall
              if they work for the auctioneer or the owners of the items,
              but they exist and they inform you of their existence.
              Besides, no one put a gun to these people's heads and made
              them pay more than they wanted to!
        \_ what the heck are you talking about?
           \- i think part of what one discovers in an ebay auction is
              the secondary mkt price. if this is artificially inflated,
              people make false assumptions about what they really are
              paying for something. maybe a paperback is $8new, but the
              resale value at moes is $2 cash or $3 credit ... well then
              the new cost of the books is really $5-6 [if you live in
              berkeley]. now say moe's sells it for $5 used ... if you
              for some reason believe you can re-sell it for $4, then you
              may over pay since you are only willin to really spend $1
              on it, but you are actually paying $2-3. on ebay if you
              raised you bid on something from $15 to $17 after somebody
              else bids $16, you reasonably assume "if i want to sell this
              the day after i win, i know there is somebody willing to
              pay $16 out there". if you paid too much because of the
              non-manipulated winners curse ... well too bad [like people
              who buy a piece of camera equipment or a dvd they could have
              gotten new from amazon or bhphoto fro $1 more. --psb
              \_ I meant why is the OP even discussing this?  Is someone
                 suing or charging eBay with something?  url?
                 \_ Read the news once in a while.
                    \_ I searched slashdot and http://news.com for recent articles
                       about eBay.  I didn't see anything related.
                       \_ There's a story on it on cbs. Slashdot isn't exactly
                          news. The story is pretty easy to find.