Auction sites,. Legitimate or not

There are literally hundreds of auction sites poping up on the internet everyday. The question is do you trust them? I am not talking about eBay here. eBay is considered a different category all by it self. What I am talking about are the so called penny auction sites where you are supposed to get great deals and just pay pennies. Yes, really, pennies. I am a bidder but I will stick to eBay for now. I have actually visited a few to see what the hype was all about and I am not kidding but it's really true. For example you can purchase the apple mac laptop worth over $1500 for, for, make a guess...give up yet?......less than $15. Seriously I am not kidding. Can you believe it? Yeah I know, me neither. But, there is a catch and guess what it is, you have to buy the actual bids. Yep, it's not for free. I am wondering is it a loss or a win for the bidder. How much bids did he actually bought to win this item? I am sure he had serious competition to win. Was it worth it? If a winner is reading this I would like to know.