The auction site in problem, when I visited the site, there were 35 live auctions on display with titles such as "PR7 keyword-rich text ad on PR8 tour site + bonus!" for $28 per month for 12 months and "Link on PR8 Home Page"for $200 per month for 4 months.

I explored a little additional on the site and found some interesting conditions. If I did choose to bid, I did only see the website after I did won the auction. So the main information I had to go on was the reported PR value. Though many but not all of the sellers gave short descriptions of their sites jointly with traffic figures.

And then there is the small matter of Google's terms and conditions "thou shall not buy Page Rank" or words to that effect. How can Google tell? A text link ad on a relevant site is buying advertising; a text link on an irrelevant site is probably buying Page Rank.