I don't get the point, at least the buyer's point of view.
Whoa, really? It's pretty basic.
The operating principle is this: the auctioneer puts up an item and asks people to throw out bids for it. Someone bids, say, $100. If nobody else wants the item badly, it goes for $100. But if someone else wants it
more, they'll bid up to, say $120. Now the original bidder has the chance of raising to, say, $140, or just giving up and leaving the item.
It's a tradeoff between how much you want the item and how much you're willing to pay, with the person willing to pay the most getting the item. Basically, it allows people to put their own prices on an item. So if you absolutely MUST have those socks, they're worth more to you than to anyone else, and you will pay more than your competitors. You'll continue outbidding your opponents until you're either out of money, unwilling to go any higher, or you've won.
Really, all markets are auctions; this is just more direct.
