Not at all an expert on China, but have spent way too much time studying valuable ebay auctions to try and deduce which ones are real.
A couple of notes
1) the two images you have of the bottom are genuinely different shots, which would lead me to believe the piece is at least actually held by whoever is selling it each time. Many times people just steal other’s photos as @augustlan mentions. That doesn’t seem to be the case here. See the areas of dark and light on the second image? Almost like someone’s reflection. They don’t seem to be on the first. (of course this is all moot if the person had several similar shots and another would match up)
2) sometimes after an auction ends someone backs out or the seller recognizes the bid as being from someone they don’t want to do business with (some sellers won’t ship high value items to someone on a brand new account for instance, or if they aren’t verified by PayPal). Often it’s easier just to start a new auction than to try and get contact information for the second highest bid. In fact, I think this is what eBay recommends because of the limited information they expose to sellers. You didn’t mention if both sales are on ebay.
3) If several almost identical items are being sold, often the seller only takes photos of one and uses that set for all auctions.
And I guess a couple of ebay basics (excuse me if these are review)
1) ebay auctions start low, and often much of the bidding can happen in the last little bit, even the last minute or seconds. The new item may be lower now, but unless it’s a “buy it now” item, the price may end up similar to the old auction, or even higher.
2) You can see who the seller is on an auction, if these are both from the same seller, it’s less likely something is up
3) You can always write a seller, or even ask right on the auction, to mention you just saw another auction for the same plate. If they don’t give a satisfactory answer, you can save your money for some other loveliness.