I learned of this on another group, the mom owns a quilt shop, they have a warehouse now of items, it is legal, and he makes money on the penny bids (costing more) because once you bid, win or not, your pennies are gone.
As any business, it takes time to generate from expenses to income. I've not had any problems with sewbids or ebay so far. And I do not personally know this sewbids owner, but I did question a lot of things when he opened, and he called me several times to explain how it works.
But it's still a personal choice, some don't like ebay or yard sales. Just wanted to share some options for new items and lower prices.