Ebay's auction model includes a strict time limit that doesn't adjust for bidding. That is, if someone bids in the last few seconds of an auction, there's no increase in time as there would be in a traditional physical-space auction to allow others an opportunity to bid higher if they're interested. This leads to the whole phenomenon of auction sniping, which is pretty silly when you realize it's all the result of what's arguably a design flaw.<p>Imagine an auctioneer in real life implements this policy. "Going once for x. Going twice...." They begin mouthing the word "sold" when a competing bidder jumps in at x+1. The auctioneer proceeds as though nothing happened ("Sold!") except that the sniper wins ("For x+1...").
Shameless plug, I have a love/hate relationship with Missed Connections, and as a result created <a href="http://www.MissedConnections.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.MissedConnections.com</a> to improve on the good work Craigslist started.
ebay: auctions suck, bidding on stuff isn't my idea of fun. There is too much of negative press surrounding fraud etc, so you have to go out of your way to portray yourself as not being a criminal.
craigslist: people are cheap, it is handled face to face, if you are selling something large, usually random strangers come into your house.<p>So that really has nothing to do with coding, but those are my gripes with each.