Forgot to write - since usually late April tends to bring some changes the fact that eBay auctions did stoped could be a sign of (perhaps welcome?) tarif changes. Just my thougt. As eBay auctions did start I discussd with my wife that if I would be Gunn, I would do the same to establish the fares people actually want to pay. Again, this is just a pure thougt of mine.
As I mention earlier, using eBay to sell train tickets is temporarily OK, but I never can imagine that, say, RZD or SNCF or DB (to name a few big and seriously looking companies) would sell tickets on eBay or similar forum.
Also I never really understood, why the #$%& does Amtrak act like an airline (in other word, a certain ticket is valid only on a certain day and for reservation change there could be a penalty almost as big as the ticket itself). In a normal world there is a ticket wich is valid on EVERY SINGLE DAY for a reasonable perio of time. Now if you use a "good enough train" (express/IC/EC/sleeper, etc) you have to purchse a separate reservation. This reservation is usually around $5 for the coach and $10-$40 for the bed (depending on sleeper quality and company; more expensive is not necessarily better). This also can be changed but if there are only few hours left until departure penalty could apply. For "no-show" the ticket is still OK, but the seat/bed reservation has to be purchased again. That works reasonably well in free market economy (France, Germany), in semi-free market economy (Russia, China, VietNam) and in strict communist economy (N. Korea). Cannot say about Japan I do not know. So why this would not work in the USA? We know how much the airlines are hated for price manipulating. Why the rail should mimic thr airlines where they are failing? To the contrary, the airlines who tend to manipulate the price the least (Southwest, etc.) tend to get better attention from the customers.
Perhaps a lession for Amtrak to learn: an average American needs a predictable, logical and fixed every day-low price based on mileage and not on constellation of stars or other nonsense. At certain times when the trains tend to have lower ridership special tickets could be issued. Like in Germany: if you are flexible you can buy a fixed price ticket which is valid on some days and has a fixed price, independently on mileage. and yes, anyone can upgrade such ticket to a sleeper without fuss, without being humilitated by conductor or other self-made local mini-Mussolini. And surprize: to buy, say a sleeper from Berlin (Germany) to Novosibirsk (Russia, Siberia) is the same extra roughly $40 at the DB counter or RZD counter or from the conductor. Duh. And neither the price ($40) nor the train (yes, there is a through 4-bed sleeper like that) was made up. Same applies if I'd go from Berlin to Rome or from Budapest to Munich.
<_<