Suspicious eBay bidding?

[nemo]

My analysis:
r***4 bid $71 which is $1 more! That means r***4 wasn't the first to bid!
That makes me think that the whole bidding history isn't shown in the picture.
Their must have been other bidders before him that bid lower amounts.
But then again, it says "starting price" $70. Weird!
1. If you are the first bidder when a BIN exists, you get it for that bin price & you can't go higher!
2. If someone bids lower than the BIN (upon opening), the BIN disappears and it becomes an auction till the end.
So in this case, either their never was a BIN price or if their was, other people bid before r***4.

No. You're not understanding the proxy system. (or buy-it-now)
r4 bid first, a dollar over the start price. At that point the auction was at $70, not $71
Then n1 bid -- something over $88, he should have waited because r4 was satisfied with his starting bid
But then r4 started bidding, seven more times. We call him a nibbler. Trying to beat n1 but gave up at $87 which pushed the max to $88

n1 could have gotten it for $72 if he'd put in a snipe bid, could have saved $16

There was no buy-it-now at $70 as the BIN has to be at least 30% of the auction start price

 

[LRod]

No. You're not understanding the proxy system. (or buy-it-now)
r4 bid first, a dollar over the start price. At that point the auction was at $70, not $71
Then n1 bid -- something over $88, he should have waited because r4 was satisfied with his starting bid
But then r4 started bidding, seven more times. We call him a nibbler. Trying to beat n1 but gave up at $87 which pushed the max to $88

n1 could have gotten it for $72 if he'd put in a snipe bid, could have saved $16

There was no buy-it-now at $70 as the BIN has to be at least 30% of the auction start price

I get what they did and how it works. I've been buying and selling on eBay since 09/1997. Maybe I didn't explain clearly. I was trying to say that either a BIN didn't exist (which the OP said that it did have one) or it was everything else that you've already explained! Guess my explanation was confusing!