I was wondering if it would be a good idea to have a gentlemen's agreement not to bid against each other on eBay. It would help to prevent the price being run up more that normal. I noticed that problem some time back when everybody was buying waffle irons. I was able get mine before the prices skyrocketed.
If you are bidding on a item you could post the link so other people would know not to bid against you. Once the bidding is done, you could edit the post to say if you won it and remove the link.
I am not sure if this would work, but it was just an idea I had.
Jeremy