Having reread your post 3 times David I can't see the issue

Surely the vendor of any item on ebay has the right to end their auction early for any number of reasons (mistake in listing, item no longer available etc etc) Otehrwise why would ebay offer this function.

Sounds to me like someone was waiting for the price to drop and now has the grumps that they didnt get the chance to bid on it and get it for lower than $2500.