Bidding help please

[brawse]

I found an item on eBay that I'm really interested in. This person also happens to be in the village next to mine, so it's perfect. The starting big is set as £180 so I've now started bidding (so far the only person bidding). However, I've found the item on Facebook marketplace from the same seller posted for £400. Is this allowed? I'm worried that the seller will take the item off if no one else bids and try to sell it privately as clearly £190 is too low considering they're looking to get £400.

It's allowed. They will sell it wherever they get the higher price. They can cancel the auction if they wasn't so could if they get a higher price on market place.
If it's highly sought after you'll probably see a flurry of bidding right at closing time of auction and price could shoot up yet.

If I was them I would keep the auction going until the end to see what price I got but cancel it if someone goes for the £400. You can set minimum price on eBay when seeking so they might have done that too, in which case it will only be sold if it makes the threshold

Selling not seeking 🙄

No need to bid until the end, then just put the maximum you are willing to pay. Bidding early just drives up the price.