Auction Bidding

[azlaw]

The problem with this whole online auction paradigm is that the rules are essentially impossible to enforce. If someone misbehaves, then they get "terminated", but so what? They just come back with a new screen name. In the end, it's mail order in the blind - you really don't know who you're dealing with, and there's not much you can do if things don't go well. It's is frankly amazing to me that the whole thing works at all, much less as well as it does. People really seem to want this to work.

That said, I think that these auction organizations will continue to face more pressure as fraud increases, which it seems to be doing. The folks here make amusing observations about obviously false Luger ads, but these ads may in fact be crimes if the owner makes false statements knowingly. Federal crimes at that. The comments on these sales sometimes call out the problems, making it all the more difficult for the seller to disclaim knowledge of the falsity of his statements. The problem for eBay and other auctioneers is that this puts them on notice too, and makes them an accomplice if they continue to post the listing. It will be interested to see what happens...

H