Bidding on ebay

[Fusion]

So I've been wathing and bdding on iPhone 4's the last couple of days and last night was really watching this auction closely, I was the winner for about half an hour and then 2 seconds before the end someone overbids by 10$ and I get pissed. I was on icq with my friend and he wrote "I bet the seller pwnd you himself, lol".
So today I open up ebay and the guy sends me a second offer thing, the BuyItNow price being my last bid. Is it still possible for sellers to do this or am I lucky that the winner really refused the transaction?
I buy stuff off ebay US all the time, but its almost always BIN, so I don't have much experience with auctions. The seller has over 100 sales and 95% positive.

unrelated:

[Ian Bowers]

I don't know what this thread is about, but I approve of that picture.

[Massive Lee]

i don't know what this thread is about, but i approve of that picture.

+1

[xwill112x]

I don't know what this thread is about, but I approve of that picture.

[chrisesteschiro]

Sellers can do that on ebay. With that feedback I'd go for it.

[Massive Lee]

There's a well known scam where a "stranger" uses the identity of the seller, and asks the second to last bidder to send him funds... Obviously, there will be nothing in return.

[Fusion]

How would that be done?
I got contacted by the seller directly through ebay with an ebay explanation of what a second chance is...

[Massive Lee]

Just sayin'...
Be careful.

Why would you have a chance when there's an official winner?

[Fusion]

Expiration Time: Oct-16-10 08:30:13 PDT
Message from seller: I have 10 of these items, and the person that won the bid is nonresponsive. If you'd like, you can purchase for the bid you placed.

The guy sold 9 iphones in the past couple weeks, all 100% positive.

[unrlmth]

Just sayin'...
Be careful.

Why would you have a chance when there's an official winner?

Because when you sell something and the original winning bidder is unresponsive or doesn't pay or whatever, eBay has an option to send a second chance to the next highest bidder.

[george graves]

You can send the second change offer to any bidder - regardless of weather the winner backed out or not. it's meant to help sellers sell more.

From a sellers point of view, it doesn't work. All the bidders scratch their head and are like "wut? that's not how an auction works!"

[Fusion]

Turns out I'll be buying from someone else because I placed a bid on a different one before I got the "second chance" and won it a couple minutes ago.

[ak-]

I can't read what you posted because that picture is distracting me pretty good.

[Be30mer]

Ur buying teenage girls on ebay? link to auction?

[Kershaw]

yes please.