Just a couple of other thoughts on this topic:

I've been involved with auctions where I didn't meet the reserve but was high bidder. Sometimes, if the seller really wants to get rid of the item, they will look at the highest bid and determine if they want to sell it for that price. That's especially true if it was close to the reserve.

Could it also be a way to tell the seller that no matter what the chip is valued at in TCR, it doesn't have the market value to sell at that price. I've seen sellers reduce their reserve because it didn't sell.