Originally Posted by Travel Pro

There's no collusion here. There's an easy explanation. Each auction stands alone. In this case, the person who bid on your item placed a higher "maximum" bid, therefore the computer will automatically up the bid by the appropriate "bid increment" (in this case 500 points) until their max bid is reached. So, just bid on one of the other lots where the Current High Bid is less. Daniel has been involved in SPG auctions before... and you're right, the bids will go considerably higher, especially being his first place in London.

With multi lot auctions offering the same thing, it's always interesting to see the bidding strategies as the end nears... as the "end time" is extended by 5 minutes if a new bid is received. So lot #1 can close later than other lots, even though it has the earliest "close time"... and so on. Sometimes people wait hoping people will buy the earlier lots leaving bargains towards the end... this can happen, but sometimes those towards the end wind up going for more as people panic they may not get one. Can go either way... depends on how big the buying pool is.