I'm actually Chris T...
Thank you everyone for weighing in. I'll contact them, see what they say. I'm suspecting they won't share too much, but at least I will have said something. When the winning bid went for roughly the same price as had been listed on his site and then all of a sudden it was offered to me, I mentioned to my wife that I suspected...something...but couldn't really articulate it.
I do like the piece. It holds a bit of nostalgia/sentimental meaning for me. But having now read through the multiple threads on this and having a strong suspicion there could have been some shilling taking place tempers the enthusiasm a bit.