I've seen that on ebay.  Guy helped sell a very rusty old Lyman Alaskan in a G&H mount.  That was back when you could dig a little about users, communicate with others.  Turned out the seller and shill only lived a few miles apart and both were in the antique business.  The scope and mount were junk, but bidding got up over $700 with the shill trying to say the patent date, about the only thing that could be read, was unique in some way.  One could look at the bid history on gunbroker, but that may only reveal that a certain buyer bids on certain types of guns, or often bids on gray blanket guy's auctions.  Whether or not it's with the intent to run up the bid, who can say?