I am as one with Quadraman. I decide what I am willing to pay, and bid that amount at the last opportunity. If someone else wants the item more than I do, and is willing to back that desire with money, it is entirely reasonable that that person should win it. An auction is not a stroll in the countryside, no matter what the media may represent it to be. It is deadly serious.
'Shill bidding', which Quadraman mentioned, is illegal in almost all auctions. However, it is easily spotted. Far more of a pain, again as Quadraman mentioned, is bidding by novices against each other in piffling increments, eight days from fall of the hammer. This simply gets in the way of serious bidders who know what they intend to pay at the last feasible moment. The novices, who bid as if their money is being extracted through their nostrils, are then still trying to get a 'bargain', and they are easily outbid.
de