Final Bid Amounts

[justa2447]

If the final winning bid amount for an item, note, etc. is a specific, even exact price, and a bidder such as yourself or myself placed that exact bid price prior to the end of the auction, then shouldn't we, you and I, be the winning bidder if someone  else using automatic bid doesn't actually outbid us on the final price?

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[jame234]

The winner of an auction is the bidder who was first to place the highest bid.

[house*of*paws]

Hi @justa2447 

 In the case of a tie bid … the bidder who placed the bid first is the winner.

The proxy bidder likely placed it first … but the full amount of their bid was hidden at the time you placed your bid.

[woodland_gnome]

Ties go to the earlier bid.   And an "automatic" bid is not a thing, all bidders bid a particular amount and eBay HIDES the full amount of that bid if it exceeds the calculated price (generally the high bid of the 2nd highest bidder plus 1 bid increment), it doesn't actually place a new bid on behalf of the "automatic" bidder.

Don't bid "even, exact" amounts.   Bid a bit over the round number you have in mind as a tiebreaker.  Since most bid the round number bidding 1 cent over the round number you were going to bid will make you the winner over the bidder bidding the round number (whether you bid first or last); but this is not a secret and others do the same thing so add a few cents (the surer you are that you don't want to pay the next bid increment over the  round number the fewer cents over it, the less sure the more cents).