If the owner wanted to protect his investment & wanted to realize a final sale value, put a reserve amount on it or put a "Buy-It-Now" value on it. Running up the auction price by bidding on his own item doesn't seem ethical, but that's just me. Please note that I have NO idea of who this bidder s***t is or how he/she may be involved in the process...my original comment was that it just looked a little fishy to me.

With regards to the current price & value, if you were the successful bidder for this chip, wouldn't you rather have it at a lower price versus a higher price if bidder s***t is doing what I would consider unethical?

Steve B