Keep in mind that money is not the only method of payment. That situation could easily be $500 cash or $50 and a promise to care for it the way you would want it to be cared for. [...] A couple of comments: sellers can (and often do) contact the second highest bidder if the first "walks away". Also, I think there may be other reasons for backing out than the malicious attacks on sellers suggested earlier. Shipping might be one reason (I recently "walked away" from a couple of DEC computers I bought on eBay because of the shipping. (I'm sending the guy the full bid amount plus shipping on the items I *do* want; he was nice enough to throw in a couple other computers to replace the ones I didn't want!)) In any case, a 70% completion rate is not necessarily a sign of people artificially raising bid prices with no intention of following through. Okay, so yes, the eBay people sit there, rubbing their hands and cackling gleefully as they watch the selling prices for altairs soar through the roof. But what is it that they do (other than provide the service) to encourage the higher selling prices? but eBay doesn't get paid if the trx falls through, so it would make sense for eBay to prefer a lower commission on a smaller sale than no commission on a sale that doesn't go through. --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/