I think you're misinterpreting what is suspected of having happened. Artificial bid war possibly using a 2nd account by the seller. That's totally different than setting a reserve or higher starting price. Last minute bidding can cause people to get really worked up and bid more than they initially would have (it's happened to me a few times), versus trying to guess what the reserve may be or even considering the auction in the 1st place if the starting bid is perceived as too high (even if the price may have ended up there with a lower starting bid).
Strategic eBay listing is seriously serious.
No, I understand what's suspected of being done. That's the point I'm making, why go into shill bidding? It's against ebay policy among other things, there's ways to get the money he wants without having to be insanely underhanded.
I can't stand bidding wars btw. When I'm doing auctions, I just sit there for a moment and figure out exactly how much my spending limit on an item would be, and then add a dollar or two and some change on top of that, and leave it be.
If I get sniped, oh well, the sniper has deeper pockets than me apparently.
