[techweenie]

We had a company like that advertise on Fast Lane Daily. They gave us all $25 worth of account "money." It was an interesting game where the bidding closed after a certain number of seconds without a higher bid. You only spent what the pack of bids cost you. The actual price of the item was irrelevant, so if you were masterful and lucky, you could buy the minimum number of bids (say $25 worth) and "win" multiple items. Auctions didn't "open" until enough people had put up an ante that the company was already making 200%.

It's basically gambling. But it's a good business model for the operator. You can -- as stomachmonkey says -- easily see how much they net on every item sold.