Did I get Shafted on E-Bay? (OT)

[dux]

Basically, there was an item currently at $25, and I put in a maximum bid of $60 (so it must have installed me as the highest bidder at $26). I go away, and come back after the auction is over (it finished at about 8pm) and $61 is the winning bid.

I have no beefs, because somebody kept upping the bid madly in the last hour of the auction till he's outdone me.

BUT - a day later this happens:
I get an official E-Bay e-mail saying that the winner couldn't pay, and I was being given the chance to buy the item for $60 (my highest bid). Now, if this prick who couldn't pay didn't put in the phony bids, I would possibly pay $26 for the item, and definitely below $60.

Is this possibly/probably/definitely a scam by the seller to make me pay the maximum I've set?

Here are the bids with the names changed (notice my bid was not second last, rather that was when I was outbid - I bid at 3:51 pm):
<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
Bidder (rating) Bid Date And Time
=============================================
shafter? ( 0 ) $61.00 20-Oct-04 19:06:36
OUR HERO ( 3 ) $60.00 20-Oct-04 15:51:50
shafter? ( 0 ) $60.00 20-Oct-04 19:06:16
shafter? ( 0 ) $50.00 20-Oct-04 19:05:54
shafter? ( 0 ) $45.00 20-Oct-04 19:05:34
shafter? ( 0 ) $40.00 20-Oct-04 19:05:11
shafter? ( 0 ) $30.00 20-Oct-04 12:36:27
firstbidder ( 1 ) $25.00 14-Oct-04 11:11:34
shafter? ( 0 ) $25.00 20-Oct-04 12:36:19
somebody ( 137) $20.00 14-Oct-04 08:12:25
firstbidder ( 1 ) $20.00 14-Oct-04 11:11:23
firstbidder ( 1 ) $15.00 13-Oct-04 22:19:29
</pre><hr />