The "Show automatic bids" function is a tool that attempts to recreate the "current bid" that may have shown at various times during the auction but it is only that: a tool to recreate (it is not a record of what actually showed at various times); a tool that attempts (it is often wrong, displaying "automatic bids" that never were the displayed "current bid" and not showing what actually showed as the "current bid" at various times such as what showed before a cancellation or retraction--a good thing as showing that could reveal more of the leader's bid than should be shown--or when a Reserve Price is first met--showing what that reserve was, not so good an omission); the timestamp on the "automatic bid" is not the time that that "current bid" was started to be displayed but rather is the time of a bid by the bidder it is attributed to; in any event the notion of "automatic bids" is misleading as it is based on an imperfect analogy used to oversimplify the eBay bidding process (in reality, eBay doesn't "bid on your behalf" but rather calculates what the price would be if there is no further activity before the auction ends, displays that as the "current bid" and hides the full amount of any bid by the highest bidder that exceeds that calculated price by substituting that "current bid" for the full amount of that bid).
ETA: "Hide automatic bids" simply returns the bid history to its original form: each line (other than the Starting Price line which shows the Starting Price set by the seller and the time the auction started) shows an actual bid placed at the time and date indicated on the line, BUT for the highest bid (and any other bids of the high bidder that show the same amount) the actual amount of the bid is not shown, only the calculated price based on the highest bid of the next highest bidder (or on the seller's minimum "Starting Price" or "Reserve Price" the latter of which is not indicated on the Bid History Page (but if the amount shown for the top bid(s) is more than 1 bid increment higher than the highest bid of the 2nd highest bidder then that is the exact Reserve Price showing as the current bid (but if someone other than that then highest bidder bids the amount is replaced and "Show automatic bids" does not bring it back--one of the situations where it shows a "current bid" that is incorrect).
