Recently several times, I bid on an item with no bids and get outbid. What gives?

[countrycookit]

Recently, I've bid on several items which have had no previous bids.  When I enter my amount, I am either outbid or become the highest bidder if I have put in the maximum I'll consider.

The first time it happened, I thought it was a co-incidence that someone was bidding at the exact same time I did.  However, it has happened so many times in the last few days, I'm thinking something else is happening.

Is that possible?

It's weird.

[pierrelebel]

"which have had no previous bids."

???

Are you sure they were no other bids, not just that the price shown was the starting price.

For example, let us say an item has a starting price of $10 and I bid $20 on it.

The listing on eBay will still show a starting price of $10 only

If you bid $14.75, then my bid will show $15.00

For more information on how bidding on eBay works, please take a look at: http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bidding-overview.html

[reallynicestamps]

Also if the auction has a Reserve, if your bid exceeds or meets the Reserve, it will immediately go to that price, not one increment above the current price.