Look through bid-history for past auction - every auction opens or already has a \'max\' bid already made and then other people bidding up to it, but \'only the first\' high-bid (so the max) wins the prize. They don\'t close bidding when someone bids the max, but rather the price resets down below and people bid again. Hello shill bidding, hello scam. I already forwarded the site and some pertinent links to a couple of agencies.
You say they have sold other items for less than they\'re worth, but that\'s not something you know, and after you don\'t get your item for the 1, 2, 4, 8, 20 bucks you spend bidding on it, don\'t complain.