I think a lot of people didn't understand or know about how the eBay auctions worked [0]. I only learned about eBay being a second price auction, effectively, a

I think a lot of people didn't understand or know about how the eBay auctions worked [0]. I only learned about eBay being a second price auction, effectively, ages after eBay was a thing. Without knowing how the proxy system works doing an auction would be pretty frustrating because it'd look like you were usually instantly outbid. [0] At least the later version I don't know if they used a different scheme earlier. They must have because the sniping services that existed in early eBay don't really make sense with proxy bids.