Okay, so I have a question for those familiar with Ebay. I recently bid on an item with a starting bid of $50. I held the only bid for the entire week, then saw someone outbid me with 3-4 hours to go. I was hoping to get it for about $75 or less, so with a few minutes remaining, I started bidding in $5-10 increments. I got it all the way up to $85 (thrill of the bid), but stopped there as the person who outbid me was sitting at $86.
Fast forward to today - I received a second chance offering on the item for $85 BIN. The seller says he has two, which I was very surprised by as this is a unique custom figure. So my question is, is there any way to determine whether the first bidder really did buy the original listing? Seems like an effective way to save on Ebay costs would be to shill bid on your own auction, effectivvely putting up a "reserve price" bid. You've effectively bought your own item, but can offer a second chance price to the last highest bid. Then you can just go back and submit a non-payment for the bid you placed on yourself.
Am I just being paranoid here? Curious to know what others think and if you've run into anything similar.