It could happen.naturally if a genuine underbidder’s account is closed/withdrawn during thevauction - I believe the high bidder’s proxy bid will remain stranded up there. Might be one or two other legitimate scenarios, but all of them are rarer than rocking horse shit - so unlikely to be the cause of furryman’s issue.
More likely, the bid history for the listing was just presented in a confusing way.
The only time this happens is in a reserve auction - if you bid higher than the reserve the bid immediately jumps to the reserve price regardless of what the next highest bidder has bid. Otherwise, you never bid more than one bid increment above the next highest bidder.
You should never use the proxy system though, because there are two types of people who will screw you if you do - shill bidders for the sellers, and “nibblers” - people who bid one increment at a time just to drive up the price/see if they can get ahead for a little while at the lowest price.
I have been a seller on eBay in hundreds of auctions, and I was never able to see that information.
Thanks for the replies.
I’ve bought on Ebay since around 1998. Never sold anything. It’s nice hearing from the sellers side.
It used to be very easy, just click bids and the userids of everyone who bid were visible in clear text. Then, once you know the userid, you could search on current and past bids for that user. You can still do this but you must know the user’s Id, but all you can search is completed auctions.
Originally you could search who is bidding on what, and if you knew someone with a sharp searching skills you would just sit back and bid out from under them.
Can some of you experts recommend a couple good sniping services?
Install a clock near your computer that has a second hand, and then set the alarm on your phone.
Just because you don’t have the morals/smarts/time/inclination to sneak a way to find it out doesn’t mean others haven’t 
Except for BuyItNow, how does one bid without the proxy? I thought the only way to bid on EBay was with the incremental bit, ie, by telling EBay my maximum, and they try not to use the whole amount.
You can bid in increments manually.
On items I have won, I have never had my max bid reached, just the next increment over the next highest bidder. Never seen any funny stuff.
I use Auction Sentry. Buy it once and no on-going fees. 10 day free trial.
One thing I really like about it is that I can add 10 items to a group and it will bid on them until it wins one and then skips the rest.
The downside of course is that you have to have a decent internet connection and your computer has to be on and running the software when the auction ends.
I’ve used eBay (buying and selling) since 2003, and I’ve bought dozens of items at final prices lower than the maximum bid I entered.
You were ‘nibbled’ - the competing buyer did find out your max bid, but only by trial and error - manual incremental bidding until he/she outbid your max.
If you don’t do the proxy bid, then obviously, this can’t happen, so it can shape the outcome of the auction (assuming the nibbler doesn’t just end up competing with someone else who happens to max bid the same as you would have).
Forgive me, I’m not following. Wouldn’t the nibbler then have won the auction?
:smack: Yes, unless they subsequently retracted their winning bid, but in that case, they would probably be a shill bidder.
If the nibbler is the seller shilling, and he screws up and wins his own auction, then he can send a “second chance” offer to the highest legitimate bidder. For some reason, these offers are always at the buyer’s max bid, not +1 increment over next highest bid.
I had to retract my bid because it was the wrong item, I had a maximum bid placed. I emailed the seller and immediately after the bid had risen to one dollar above my maximum bid. The seller contacted me just after the bid had risen. Is this coincidence or is someone was able to push the price up quickly.:dubious:??? any thoughts
That is how proxy bidding works. Some one else had a higher maximum bid than you, so when you bid, proxy bidding automatically increased their bid by one increment ($1.00). This happens instantaneously when you make your bid, and it will continue to occur until your bid exceeds their maximum bid. That is the way it is supposed to work.