Auction.com experiences

[Joseph Leonard]

Can anyone provide their opinion on using Auction.com? Last week I found a home by auction.com, went to the house to check it out and decide to bid on it. I ran the numbers and the plan looked great. The auction was set to start on 2/20. 2/19 comes along and I notice that the property is no longer listed on auction.com. Apparently someone put in a pre-auction bid. After I learned this, I also put in a pre-auction backup bid at the highest number I wanted to bid by emailing auction.com (per their instructions) and the next day found out that the bank accepted the first pre-auction bid. My question is: Is this normally how things go on Auction.com or do most of the homes listed actually go to auction? If homes normally do not make it to auction then I would think it kind of changes a person's strategy and forces them to submit their highest bid as a pre-auction bid first. Thanks for any advice.