Am I Missing Something Here, Lincoln Cent?

People have to much money to spend.

What is odder Spence is the winning bidder had placed his autobid 4 days before the bidder on the 16th ran it up to that high level. Some bidder placed a very high bid is all, wanted it at all costs and a bidder (competetor) ran it up as high as he would/could. Not that unusual, doesn't look like a shill nor was it sniped.

I do wonder is winner thought it might be a Proof strike (It isn't) and was hoping to cherry-pick it. Looks that way. This one deserves this:

Too many newbies out there that can be easily scammed.

I see evidence of what I believe is cleaning.
Look on the obverse in the 8-2 direction.
Looks like it was wiped probably with something that removed the toning.
Lines go from the field across Lincoln's head.

Look closer at the seller. They have almost half a million individual Feedbacks, and if you drill down deeper you'll see nearly 900,000 Feedbacks total. That means a huge following of customers who buy repeatedly from them. They're one of the three or four largest coin dealers on ebay.

The seller's images - and I've been watching them for fifteen years - have been consistent in quality and presentation for that entire time. Red background, sharp but somewhat overlit. There's little difficulty involved in seeing exactly what you're going to get, and in my experience I do not know this seller to deliberately deceive regarding surface originality. I do know multiple people who buy from them without problem, collectors who know what they want and whether they got it or not. I would buy from them without hesitation.

No, the coin isn't worth $200+. 64, maybe 65RD. This seller is getting the return on their years of investment - a loyal following who tend to overpay for the coins.

Interesting thoughts all. I do agree with Dave, though. I have bought from this seller before and I was never disappointed.

Maybe the other bidder was just being spiteful and kept driving up the price? Guess we'll never know.

Appears the buyers believe the coin to be 66 or 67. The 09 plains are hard to find in high grades and the are worth more than their VDB counterparts in those grades.