Why not just say: "Well, I can build the site, but will have to charge extra due to the fact that [reasons]." Also, you could have just customized an auction s

Why not just say: "Well, I can build the site, but will have to charge extra due to the fact that [reasons]." Also, you could have just customized an auction script over a few days. For argument's sake, let's say you built their site and they say it's not half as good as eBay or has even 1% of its traffic, then they'll call you a crappy programmer. But, even if you built an exact copy of eBay at the time, with a team of 10 costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, it would lack the social capital and trust that eBay retains that no competitor could easily capture no matter how smart (unless maybe an online giant who'd have more valuable opportunities to pursue than go into a war of attrition with eBay). Is Ebay such a poorly run business that it has invited competitors at any point in its life? There are only niche auction sites AFAIK. Hype is a form of denial or aversion to some deeper truth, that in your situation was a way they could get you to buy into their fantasy.