This thing is rigged like the lottery. One person may win the bid at a fair price - all of the rest spent money to lose. My guess is that they are in fact selling goods for 10X the win bid as every loser fritters away bids they bought. Can't believe the high ratings - guess a lot of people flunked math in grade school.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for writing and sorry that your experience has not been positive. Please note that all of the items we offer have a fair Buy it Now retail price. If you lose the auction, you can still buy the item at the Buy it Now price and get the bids back. We always recommend our users to do the math, keep to a budget and bid only on items they really want.
If you follow these guidelines, the Buy it Now removes any risk of bidding and leads to an overall better experience of using the site based on the customer data we've gathered since our February 2009 launch.
I hope this helps. Please write back if you have more questions.