I too was watching this one, and if you ask me the seller was definitely doing something shady even if he seeemed honest and fair to deal with in communication.
The fairly thorough pictures at the beginning of the auction indicated and likely led all viewers to believe it was an all matching rifle. Once the price reached a certain point then he adds pictures of the mismatched bolt, seems pretty shady to me.
It’s hard to tell if it was a true “Shill” or not, but I would venture to guess it was, otherwise the seller wouldn’t have backed down on the price probably.
Either way, nice pick up on a rifle, and for what came out to be not a bad price at all too!