[Cupid]

Yes, it's a clear case of bid shielding.

Gixen does now attempt to place a last second bid in these circumstances, however when there's only one second between retraction and auction end it's going to be difficult even for an automated system to be able to get into that tiny slot.

The practice is against Ebay rules so you should consider reporting it both to them and to the seller.

Of course, had your bid been successfully placed in the last second, you still would not have won, since the winning bid was also evidently higher than yours. that's fundamental as to how this fraudulent behaviour works, but at least it would have caused the winner to have to pay a bit more for it.