The fact the bid went from 110 to 299 so quick is not that strange. That was one of my tactics when I used to buy frequently on Ebay. To actually use the max bid feature for my real max bid. Not just small increment bidding.

It sometimes would get rid of a few bidders bidding $1 at a time.

If I knew it could reach that high, and I was willing to pay that, I would skip raising the bid $5-10 at a time and bid my max amount.

You were just both willing to pay around $300.
These sellers are top notch. And I need to go check their listings. :-)