Scrap to Unusual Redemption #8: Serious Profit, and a Serious Question

Beginning Inventory: ~70.44 ref (in metal, cosmetics, third-party site inventory)

Ending Inventory: 1 key, 50.27 ref (in metal, painted cosmetics, weapons, a lot of stuff out on auction)

Trades Made: 80

Total Trades Made: 359


Series Intro | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7

I got my motivation back today, and it turned into my most profitable day yet. The biggest method I used today was buying cases from trade sites and reselling them (which accounted for maybe 15 ref in profit), but I also flipped some skins/war paints and robot parts as well. Finally, I bought a key and auctioned it, making about 11 ref in profit (assuming the bid goes through). Speaking of which, though, today's discussion topic deals with a trading situation I encountered today and have been thinking about since my last scrap to unusual. 

Are key auctions a scam? 

Arguments in favor:

1. Scrap.tf often (incidentally) misrepresents the value of items, causing bidders to believe that they're getting a better deal than they actually are.

2. This misrepresentation of items works almost solely in the auction-maker's favor, since the auction-maker can always choose to reject bids containing overvalued items while also accepting bids containing undervalued items.

3. The 50% item factor commonly used for key auctions can also mislead bidders, since some bidders may believe that the 50% price shown on scrap.tf is equivalent to the actual value of their items.

4. The theoretical service that key auctions provide (saving bidders the time associated with selling items to bots) isn't actually that useful, and it would actually be more convenient for most bidders to sell their items to bots instead.

Arguments against:

1. The buyer knows what they're getting into, and implicitly accepts that they may lose money by placing a bid?

As I said, I did one key auction today, which ended up making ~11 ref in profit, but I feel kind of bad about it. So if you're familiar with the scrap.tf auction feature, what are your thoughts on key auctions?
Key auctions?
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