What is the deal with these Live Auctions, and why are those listings so lacking in info & photos?

[elma_ny]

I don't understand why all of these Live Auctions here seem to give me a case of the Buyer Beware Willies.  Such a seller has less than 100 Feedback points, a 91.2% Feedback Rating (I assume that's not very good), has three negative Feedbacks, and yet (AND YET!) is rated by eBay as a Top Rated Seller.  HUH???!!! Why do I find that to make zero sense?  Please see the screen shots below for one such Live Auctioneer.

Further, ever time I look at one of these listings (for any of these Live Auction sellers) the listings are awful.  Often the listings have serious issues, such as: the photos are low-resolution (i.e., don't enlarge); there's only one photo; there's zero text describing the item; they completely omit key info (like dimensions); there are many paragraphs of tiny fine print; and the shipping charges are "varies."  Really, "varies" for the shipping charges, well, that pins the final cost right down, doesn't it?  Sheesh.

I'd love to hear for buyers who trust these sellers, because I just don't think I want to deal with such obviously poor ebay sellers.  Further, does anything think these Live Auctions are merely a scam to increase interest?  That seems like an obvious question for such listings.  Thanks in advance for your comments!

[csbbct]

As far as these Live Auctions go, this is my experience - most of these auctions are from auction houses that do not necessarily cater to the eBay format but it's forced on them because the online auction service they use, like Invaluable for example, also list the auctions on eBay.  For many of these auction houses, online is only one way they are accepting bids during the auction as much of the bidding comes from live on-site bidding, absentee bids, and phone bids.  Since much of the bidding comes from other methods that involve the bidder doing a live preview of the merchandise on-site, they are accustomed to potential online and phone bidders contacting the auction house for a "condition report" and more specific details about the lot so their descriptions in the listing, particularly condition, are sometimes minimal.  Also, most auction houses do not ship items themselves so they list their telephone number to call them and they will give you the name of their shipping service to contact for quotes.

I'm sure there are some bad ones, but probably most are okay but do not focus on eBay as their main selling outlet so do not necessarily create their listings as an eBay seller would do.