Although my experiences on e-bay were not shell-related, the ruses which I encountered may be used frequently so I'll share them, briefly... Shill bidding... the seller and/or his/her cohorts keep pushing the bid higher and higher. It is important to know the true value of what you are bidding on. Often, when you (the bidder) are wise the above ruse, you let the item go to some other bidder. After the auction ends, you get an e-mail from the seller that they have another item just like the one that you were bidding on... and they'll let you have it at the price of your last high bid. This is where many people have been taken for money. Since this action is outside of the e-bay system, none of their safeguards apply. Worst of all is the backdoor out-bid. You win the bid on the item, you send your payment to the seller and he/she says that the item has been shipped to you. However, the person you were bidding against e-mailed the seller and offered enough get the item anyway (or the seller contacted the losing buyer and made the deal the other way around). You wait, and wait, and wait,... and nothing arrives. You complain and the seller says he/she will return your money, which they are glad to do. Your only defense here is to insist the item be shipped insured and the seller should e-mail you the receipt number so that you can track the package from your end. All of the above could be encountered by someone buying shells e-Bay There are some tricks to bidding the Dutch auctions but this isn't the place for telling them. If the deal looks too good to be true, it very likely IS too good to be true. Aloha, makuabob (Bob Dayle) http://www.cowrys.org _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail