"In several instances, eBay has suspended the users who offered the boxes for sale, after determining that they violated eBay's policy against deceptive listings. Several of the listings have been removed.

How hot is the new Xbox 360? Some people offered hundreds of dollars just to buy the cardboard box in which it's packed. One person even bid $630 merely for a picture of the machine.

But then reality hit.

Capitalizing on shortages of Microsoft's Relevant Products/Services from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) new video-game console, several people have attracted bids as high as $600 or more on eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) this week by offering Xbox 360 boxes -- just empty boxes -- in ways that made it seem, without reading closely, that the items for sale were actually consoles.

The common approach: Acknowledging that the item was merely a box, but surrounding that disclosure with so many pictures and descriptions of the real console and accessories that someone merely skimming the listings might not notice.

"This is the Xbox 360 Core bundle box. It would include things like a new xbox, power cords, and a controller, if there was actually an xbox for sale in this auction," read one of the listings, which was still active Friday night.

In several instances, the online auction site has suspended the users who offered the boxes for sale, after determining that they violated eBay's policy against deceptive listings. Several of the listings have been removed.

One box seller said his listing was just a joke.

"I never (actually) thought people would bid on this," wrote the seller, who goes by the eBay screen name "silentbarrel," in response to an e-mail inquiry Friday. "I thought most people that were spending any money on anything would read what they are buying."

"Silentbarrel" wasn't even offering a real Xbox box, but rather a homemade one. He explained that he had alerted the buyer to the ruse after the auction ended, saying not to send the $611 payment.

He received an expletive-filled e-mail in return. Silentbarrel said in an e-mail that he had been "laughin histriocally" over the situation.

EBay is less amused." [more]