Well, it seems obvious to me what the story is with the high bidders failing ID checks, and I assume this is what you were implying:

Those bidders were the shills. They’d made a bid above the previous bid for the purpose of getting somebody else to outbid them. When nobody did, they “failed” their ID check and the unit was sold to the second highest bidder.

Really, what are the odds that a number of high bidders would have identified themselves as somebody else? That doesn’t even make sense. What buyer would do that and why? They wouldn’t. It’s a (legal) scam.

I don’t think the prices shooting up quickly has anything to do with it. I mean, when the price is below market, it’ll generally shoot up to near market value quickly even in a legitimate auction. But having multiple high bidders fail an ID check is an obvious scam. I don’t think that qualifies as a conspiracy theory so much as a blatent ploy by the auction company.