Bidding procedures

I would like to know how I can be out bid as soon as I post my bid. Four times I have submitted a higher bid than the last posted bid and was told instantly that I had been out bid. I feel like I am bidding against myself.|||its a spooky feeling. The items sits and sits, no bids, it's a zero for HOURS or DAYS and I go to bid.... and BAM someone bids at that same exact instant.... I don't know what to tell you. Someone bid the same instant you did. Its happened to me too, it's a bit freaky, like there's someone looking over your shoulder, or a robot in the software bidding against you.... but it doens't happen often enough to be able to holler foul...Friends just call me Crazy. Or you can call me Ms. Crazy.|||The other bidder/s has/have placed a maximum bid that is higher than what was showing. Then as you placed a bid, eBay automatically use as much of their maximum to keep them on top. This will continue as other bids are placed until the first bidders maximum is reached, or the listing ends, with them as the winner. If you click on the word bids on the listing, then on the bid list page click on show automatic bids, I am sure you will see the other bidder placed a bid earlier than you did. If you want us to take a look, give an item number.~ Lucy ~ Guide to eBay Board AcronymsClick on for links to Help Pages for a new eBayer|||crazt8dreams..... you hit the nail on the head without realizing it ...... the robot doing the bidding is the eBay automatic bidding system working as it should.~ Lucy ~ Guide to eBay Board AcronymsClick on for links to Help Pages for a new eBayer|||Link to eBay Help Page on Automatic bidding~ Lucy ~ Guide to eBay Board AcronymsClick on for links to Help Pages for a new eBayer|||I don't know about the OP, but I was referring to a zero bid auction.... one where nothing had happened yet, and it'd sat for days and days with nothing, and as soon as I bid, wham, someone else bid at the same instant. I got a rash of these in the last 3 months. Its just freaky. And that aint bots... that's just coincidence... supposidly... when I hit a second amount, the page reloads and then it shows up as 2 bids, one other bidder and me, when it was zero before that.Friends just call me Crazy. Or you can call me Ms. Crazy.|||crazy - You might be looking at a cached page and not realizing there's a bid there already. That happens to people who bookmark pages and then pull them up to bid. Sounds like the OP has an auction with a previous hidden proxy they're nibbling at. A few years ago, I would've written just what the OP wrote! It was frustrating until I "got it"! crazy - can you give us one of these closed auctions? It's not impossible for two people to bid simultaneously but i think you're just not seeing the previous proxy.~James~|||You can look at the times when the bids were posted, and also expand the display to see any automatic proxy bids. That will tell you how you were outbid.|||It simply means some other bidder has bid higher than the maximum bid you have placed each time you bid. Example I am bidder # 1 I place a high /max bid of $15 on an item. You are bidder #2 and bid $ $3 you are auto out bid. You then bid $5 again are out bid, you bid $7 again are out bid. Unless your next bid is OVER my max bid of $15 you will be outbid . On your next bid if you bid $16.01 then you would become the high bidder. DON'T nibble bid as you are doing. Decide the very most you are willing to pay for the item, bid your max once at at the end of the auction.