That's always a distinct possiblility Alex... and an excellent observation.

However, my point is that Ebay shuts out alot of additional potential bidders by automatically ending at a specified minute, before many bidders are given an opportunity to top the previous bid....

Because such and such chip sold for "x" amount of dollars on ebay does not mean in all cases that the maximum price was achieved for that particular item... and that price now should not serve as a benchmark for all future similar chips to be sold at in my opinion.