sounds like you`re right...if it starts at $100, someone bids $5000...it will show that same high bidder ea time someone else bids, as the bids go up, his bid will just go higher...maybe in $50 or 100 increments...
someone set the staring bid here at 4500, so if bidder did not hit reserve..it wont show the real bid until someone else bids higher than this bidder..lets say reserve is 4800 , this bidder is at 4750...so if someone bids 4775, it will then show

right now it states:
Bidder 1 US $4,500.00 Jun-26-07 14:19:26 PDT
with no other bids, & "reserve not met"