It gets pretty bad sometimes on ebay. On one occasion when I was outbid on an item twice in a row by another member, I received a private message from the guy that outbid me that was basically taunting me that no matter how high I bid that he would outbid me.
The item was brand new, but out of print. After searching around I found one retail place online that still had the item in stock. Went back to ebay and made a bid of the retail price which once again was quickly outbid (by 10%) by the same guy followed by another taunting message.
Responded to him with a message containing the link to the online retail store and that I just bought the item from them and would have it at my doorstep in 24 hours, while he just bid 10% over retail and still has to wait 5 more days for the auction to end before it would even be shipped. He responded that he would not bid anymore if I was to outbid him again, which of course I did not (would of been bout 15% over retail then).
It could of been a honest guy that just got caught up on the bidding frenzy, or it could of been a "friend" of the seller that was just trying to artificially inflate the auction price...who knows.