what is the deal with the one day auction

[M.A.N.D.I.]

have you seen the one day auctions on ebay today?

[mandi]

took me a while to remember my password, remembered it after I made another account. I am still curious about the one day auctions

[toddvj]

It's possible that it is a legit seller, but if someone is a scammer, the quicker they can find a sucker, the better.

[Def Leper]

These are almost always scams on hijacked ebay accounts. Here are the warning signals:

1. 24-hour auction

2. No reserve price or BIN

3. Low starting bid ($10 or so) on expensive, high demand products

4. Prominent (usually first line of description) message telling bidders to email, often with the admonition that "Ask seller a question" feature will be ignored

5. Item location usually doesn't match the seller location.

6. Iten is listed in an unusual category, like Klipsch speakers listed in the Barbie Doll section.

More often than not, you can click on the "view sellers other auctions" and you'll see a list of miscellaneous similar auctions for premium high-demand goods of all kinds (computers, telescopes, digital SLR's, high-end speakers and high-fi) but then the real account owners auctions. If you open one of the "real" auctions, you'll usually see a completely different auction description, with (of course) the request to email the seller at a hotmail account missing.

Potential victims who email asking about these auctions almost always receive a reply offering the item at a rediculously low price, noting that the seller is traveling in Romania or something similar and asking for payment to be sent via Western Union moneygram to a European address.