I think I would of start bidding on my own car if it looked like the hammer was going to fall on $ 33K and I wanted $50K+. Might be better to see if the other person would keep going up or not and worst case you pay some commissions vs losing a ton. I heard many have sleeper bidders out there to do that. I would personally never put a car in an action without a reserve unless they guarantee me a minimum price.
Sorry to hear they got another one of our fellow Cobra participates