[econjack]

I guess the strategy would be to wait until just before the end of the auction to start bidding?

True, but as MomToThree pointed out and I failed to mention, each bid resets the amount of time left in the auction. So if you wait until there's one second on the clock, your bid "resets" the auction clock, usually to 20 seconds. Therefore, you really don't know if you're the last bidder or not until everyone else says: "Screw it...I give up."

[suthener]

So, it sounds like the bottom line here is scam.