"Pete - Holy Cow man, now I'm scum for getting a good deal at an AUCTION?"

I never said that. I said you have taken an inconsistent position, then I demonstrated that your position was inconsistent after you said it wasn't.

If I think you are scum, rest assured I'll tell you that. I just think you are wrong in some of your critiscism (I'm too lazy to check dictionary for spelling) of others and I believe in this instance you are wrong about whether this seller has the right to refuse to sell the chip.

As to the question of when a contract is formed. Let me ask you this.

When this Seller posted the auction which of the following two choices do you think his state of mind was:

A) Ok, everybody place your bids and this one goes to the highest bidder.

-or-

B) Ok, everybody place your bids, after I see what the high bid is, I'll decide if I want to sell it to you.

People who select option A believe as I do that the seller was making an offer to sell it to the highest bidder above his stated minimum bid. In that case the placing of a bid would consitute acceptance of the offer and we would have a contract (conditional on the bid being the highest bid during the auction).

Those who believe the Seller was thinking B believe as you do that the auction process is merely an invitation for bidders to make an offer.

My experience with people indicates to me that option A is more likely the mindset of a person placing an auction on Ebay. although there are probably some auction venues where B would be the more likely answer.

In any event the terms of the User Agreement do not allow the termination of the auction in this case.

We'll just have to agree to disagree (again)