There's nothing unfair and nothing secret about it.
It is probably just that you don't know how the system works & that's something you should familiarise yourself with if you are going to buy (or later on, maybe sell) on ebay. You're being critical over your own lack of preparation or diligence.
First off, if you went to a real live auction, say of a house, you would not know what other people's highest bids were going to be.
They would be there, you would be there, bidding against each other and wondering when the other person would stop.
Sometimes there could even be a rep there, working on behalf of a bidder who was perhaps interstate.
But no one there reveals their max figures and you won't know them till the fall of the hammer.
Ebay isn't exactly like that. People will put themselves out to attend a house auction, because that is important, but on ebay, a person might be interested in bidding on a small item where the auction ends at an inconvenient time-maybe in the middle of their shift at work.
They can hardly be expected to take the day off work to bid on an item that might only cost eg $20. Or even $365.
So to make it more accessible to everyone, there is a system in place.
Anyone who sees an item they are interested in bidding on can think about the top price they would be willing to pay for it. Let's say, in the case of the item you were looking at, you had been willing to go up to $450 if you had to. But no further. Let's say the bidding was showing at $355.
Of course, you don't want to pay $450 if you don't have to. You're like the bidder at a house auction, you would rather go up by small increments as the need arises rather than reveal your max straight away.
What you can do on ebay though is type in your max. So.. you could type in $450 as your bid. It won't show to other interested parties such as the seller or other bidders, only to you and ebay.
Ebay has a computer generated system though which will act like your personal representative while you are away at work or offline. It will bid up on your behalf in small increments, as the need arises.
So.. if someone else comes along and bids $360, your auto bid might show as $365 immediately, outbidding them. Even though you aren't there.
It will keep on bidding if it has to, till it reaches your max.
But here's the thing. If someone else is willing to pay eg $455, they will win.
Where you went wrong is you obviously typed in $360. That is recorded as your maximum bid. But it wasn't, was it? You would have been prepared to pay more.
You should have typed in the max you were really willing to pay & it would covered you up to that amount.
Just a note. The auction may have ended at $365 but I doubt that was the other bidder's maximum. We will never know what their max amount was. All we know for sure is your maximum was $360.
Next time, don't be afraid to type in your real max, it will only go up to that if it has to.
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