Hawk...I do not think that EBAY will accept your bid if you are lower than my MAX bid....
Yes, it will up my bid to be on top of yours,
But you never are said to be the top bidder....
What happens is that you will get a message right on the spot that says you have been out bid and you will be asked for a higher bid.
You will NOT be said to be the highest bidder if my MAX bid is sitll in play...
So, this type of situation is a bit different than what im talking about where me and some other guy actually do become the top bidder,
HOWEVER Hawk, what you are saying makes a lot of sense to me ...For what you are saying could be exactly what happens to me, but seen from a different angle.
example..
Im the high bidder at $5
guy 2 out bids me at $6
Bidder 3 out bids us both at $7, BUT fills in a MAX bid at $100
Guy 2 tries and tries to bid, but keeps bumping into that MAX bid of $100
The MAX bid setting jacks the price up automaticaly ...soon guy2 to has jacked the price up to $100 and has yet to become the top bidder!
I come back to check on the bidding, and see that this new 3rd guy has come in and bid $100 for something that an hour ago was mine for $5
This would explane the sellers answer to me when he said that the top bidder backed-out and it went to the one other guy who was ahead of me...
From my point of view I would not know about the 2nd guy's bidding history to try to get it. unless i checked, and I should have checked to see if the 2nd guy actually ended up paying like $99 for the stuff?