Is this a scam?

[leonspinks]

If this is all normal, then no problem, but to me, it's got a whiff of scam on it and I wondered if my gut is right or wrong.

A little background. 

There was a pair of sunglasses I was watching, I didn't bid on them, the original listing said they were bought. My loss. I moved on.
Then about a week later, the same seller posted, what looked to me, the same sunglasses. This time I bid on them (I'll attach the bidding history), I lost, and whomever I lost to was using a bot because the price didn't jump until it was too late to react to it. Not a problem, all fair in love and war.

Now it's about 4 or 5 days later and the same sunglasses have shown up again (https://www.ebay.com/itm/234440285939?_trksid=p2471758.m4703), only this time there are 30 bids and for some reason it looks like a few people are outbidding themselves, driving the price up (I'm not even sure how you could do that, so there is a strong chance I'm reading this wrong).

So I'm trying to figure out if this seller is trying to work the system and relisting the same item, buying it himself if the time is up and he doesn't like the price, and then relisting it again...and either bidding it up himself or having a friend bid it up, to get the price where he wants it. 

Obviously, I'm filling in lots of spaces with theories and I could be all wrong, but that's why I'm here, hoping you guys, with more experience, would have some insight.

Below is a screenshot from the first bidding history (the one I lost) and here is a link to the new bidding history:

https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/234440285939?item=234440285939&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565

Anyway, I don't want to bid on something that is a little sketchy, so any insight is greatly appreciated.

Lloyd

[nobody*s_perfect]

I see nothing particularly suspicious in either auction.

I don't see anybody "outbidding themselves."

It might be shill bidding, but it's much more likely that the winning bidders just didn't pay for the item. Or the seller does have a few pairs (quite possible if they're counterfeit).

Your image shows a bid that was placed at literally the final second of the auction. Most of the bidding services have a lead time of several seconds, so it's likely that the bid actually was placed the regular manual way, by a thrill seeker.

Any seller who has a specific minimum sale amount in mind can just start the bidding at that price.

[leonspinks]

Thanks for the quick reply. 
I wasn't sure if I was getting this all wrong, and apparently, I am.

Appreciate it.

[albertabrightalberta]

I don't see any evidence of shill bidding in any of the seller's listings. What I see are low feedback (possible newbies) who don't understand proxy bidding so they keep upping their bids to the next increment and are automatically outbid. 

It looks like the seller has multiple pairs of each of the colors of glasses so when one sells, he lists another.