another Auction of interest, Maybe

I've seen a lot of very comical auctions lately... some of them the bidding get's astromonically high... This leads me to wonder:

Are people actually expected to pay for these gag auctions? Or is a bid on one (like the recent "Root of all Evil" auction") a show of support for a creative listing? n.

If you place a bid, it is a binding contract that should be paid. If Ebay hadn't killed my root, I would have expected payment. I think the last serious bidder at $200 or so had every intention of paying, but two fools who were probably drunk drove it up over $2k on a saturday nite. Since I did it as a joke, (and Ebay caught on and shut it down), I never got worried about it, but had a lot fun doing it. The root was as advertised, and ready for shipping. I auctioned it again, and it sold. The purchaser said that to him the save shipping cost, I should burn it in a suitable pyre. I will do so in Mid May at a bonfire with a bunch of friends and send him pictures. I told him to keep the payment and marked him off as paid in full. If someone waffled on one of my serious auctions, I would seek legal recourse. I have sold a nice vintage hood ornament to an Austrian, and a great old guitar to a Norwegian with no problems. I have also used Ebay to recycle old car parts that I was going to trash, cheaply, to people who wanted them.