how does a person set up automatic bidding for an item

[loaferrobyn]

i have observed that when i place a bid on an item  instantly  i am outbid in a split second how is that done as it,s too quick for someone to be typing in their bid in the normal way i want to be able to do it too for an item i desperately want to win ????

[kopenhagen5 · Accepted solution]

That is because someone has already placed a bid higher than the bid you are placing.

Lets say someone has 500 bid on an item but the bid is only at 100.

You then bid 200, the winning bid will go to 210 but you are still not winning until you bid over their max bid which is not visible to anyone.

Then if you bid 550 you will be the winning bidder at 510.

You can look at bid history to see that the other bid was placed before yours. (click on number of bids)

And you don't need to set up auto bidding, all members already have that by bidding the max you want to pay.

The ebay system then increases bids on your behalf when others bid, until your max is reached.