Update. The seller lodged a ' failure to sell ' notice with eBay and the reason given was that the buyer ( that's supposed to be me ) bought the bike ' by mistake. ' eBay notified me that if I verified No Sale the seller would not pay fees and that our Ratings ( both 100% ) would not change.
My rating was one thing I was worried about when the thing hit the fan so I verified, but advised that it wasn't my mistake, and asked eBay for the third time, to explain how there is a winner with no bids. That was 2 days ago, no response.
I've checked all details right back to the beginning. I wasn't even registered when I looked at that item, but within a few minutes I had registered and I bid on a different item ( Maico ). The Congratulations notice had the small print details on it as mentioned by EVO, so it's presumably from eBay, but there were no earlier notices from them advising me that I had bid or that I was high bidder. I still reckon nobody bid. The bike went back on ebay and topped out at, I think, about $800.
Certainly hard to believe that ebay as a company would do this, maybe they employ a Frenchman with a history of insider trading. Cheers, T250.