Oh.. I gotcha.. thought you'd use the UK's ebay... it still get's visibility on the US ebay site, assuming you checkmark the box that says it's availible to US residents in your auction. It just means that the price is displayed in pounds, and in the US, it'll show the approximate conversion into USDollars in parenthesis.
Adam, the reason your number jumped was because his reserve acts like a bid itself. So in order to "win" the auction at this point, it automatically ramped you up over the reserve price.
I thought you meant you'd typed in $200, and it went to $450.. my bad.
I have always hated reserve prices.. sell it or don't, don't fake like you'll take less. It's like false advertising. Still, I can see where the seller saves money in his listing, suckers folks, and suckers the ebay search system. I just personally dont use it, and wish it wasn't something Ebay didn't offer.
Nothing against you, Corpseguy. If you need the money, then make the money however you want.. it's just not for me.