Unrevealed Source wrote:
I believe the play here is that the shills bid it up, then the seller
contacts the next-highest bidder and offers to sell it off eBay (since the
high bidder "backed out"), for that seller's high bid. That way, there is
no PayPal buyer protection or negative feedback that can be left.


And one other possibility is that seller is enforcing a reserve without
having to pay Ebay fees. Seen that many times.