Jeff, you are right, and I've known that since I began participating in auctions.
(not sure how to fix the above sentence, but it sure illustrates a problem with the English language
).
I have no complaints about the final price - I put in a max bid that, in my opinion, was still lower than the item's value. Normally, to avoid angst, I put in final bids and then don't look until the next day - that way, if more bids are placed, I can assume they were done so in a 'non-fishy' manner (the ignorance is bliss auction-watching technique).
I don't think the auction house did anything fishy - more likely that a consignor wasn't happy with what the item should have sold at, so threw in (or had a friend do so) a final bid to at least get a few hundred bucks back. Or, less likely, someone who had bid on this item prior to 10:00PM pacific, decided four hours later that it really was worth just one more bid.