Questionable Estate Auction practice

Yesterday I attended an auction with high end equipment.
I won a pair of speakers but after all the items in the setup, (turntable, amp, pre-amp, cassette deck, cd player), were sold as individual pieces, the auctioneer restarted the bidding as a set. This starts the bidding at the total price bid for all the items. As a result someone bid on 'the set' so all the individual bidders were SOL. I was not willing to go that high to get the speakers, (I didn't want the other items). So I lost the speakers even though I bid the highest. I was upset and I'm not sure if this practice was even legal. Anyone ever here of this? BTW-Speakers where Apogee Duetta II's.