Is it just me...

[Eric Smith]

William wrote:
> In all fairness, the prices he pays are only
> marginally more than the runner-up bidder,

The way eBay works, that's *always* true.  It doesn't prove anything
about what his proxy bid amounts were; they might have been just
over the second highest bidder's max, or they might have been
astronomical.

> so he's not the only one driving up the prices.

If there is a big gap between the second- and third-highest bids,
then the winning bidder has driven up the price by approximately
hat difference, since if he didn't bid, it would have sold for one
minimum bid increment over the third-highest.

Eric