Firstly, commiserations on such a frustrating series of events.
With regard to the emboldened bit above, this is a situation I find quite intriguing as it appears you were shafted through no fault of your own. Indeed, possibly through nefarious practice, since the information you were given about being the highest bidder was inaccurate. Maybe the software hadn't got the sophistication to tell you that you were the equal highest bidder. So you entered the live bidding under the mistaken belief that you were the only high bidder, and that the absence of further bids meant you'd won it. Really unfortunate.
I definitely agree about photographs and numbers/letters to border teeth. They can be incredibly misleading. I've bought one or two thinking they were a rare variety, then in hand it's a huge disappointment as your hunch proves wrong.