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Spot on.
21509

Yes that's how they do it.

Or possibly even a case of shill bidding - the seller opens a new account and bids on his own items to jack the price up.

Feedback of just 3 implies a new or inactive account, raising my...

I've never heard of that (trying to overload the system) and I think 99%+ of ebay users would frown upon it.

If I was the seller and he had told me that before I'd handed over the goods I would...

Hmmm... Pushed past $250 by a bidder with a feedback of 3.

A good example of why not to get into bidding wars.