I have seen buy order upto $17,000 per btc while market price was still $11k.
I wonder why would someone buy at such a high price when he could have bought it at market rate
I have also observed this. There find up to 100% above market price.
I do not know if it is attempted fraud or if it is really legitimate when it comes to the fact that many third world countries do not have access to bacaria and are experiencing severe crises.
The way those work is that they usually get access to hacked or frauded bank accounts or credit cards and then purchase large amounts of crypto-currencies before they get banned and the amount becomes illegal.
Anyway. I'd pick localbitcoins any day of the week if your able to verify your ID. I usually find doing trades their easier and the spreads mean easier profits.