... I get outbid by some measly amount...
As far as ebay goes, one usually never knows by how much one was outbid. The winning bidder may have bid tens/hundreds/thousands of dollars more but the winning price is set by the second highest bidder.
The second highest bidder always loses by the increment amount or less.
Only if the difference between the winning price and the second highest bid is less than the increment amount does one know that the winning price was the maximum bid.
Some examples to illustrate:
#1 - bidder1 bids $100, bidder2 bids $125, and bidder3 bids $200. The seller set the bid increment at $5. Thus the winning bid is bidder3 at $130. Bidder2 didn't just barely get outbid. He was outbid by $75. But the second highest bidder(bidder2 in this case) sets the winning bid price because it is the second highest bid + the bid increment that the high bidder pays. It's the nature of proxy bidding. Even though the high bidder was willing to pay more, he only has to pay a little bit(the bid increment) more than the second highest bidder.
#2 - Same example except bidder3 bids $127 and thus wins with a winning bid of $127. Because this is less than the bid increment + second highest bid, we know that $127 was his max bid.
#3 - Same example except bidder2 wins with a bid of $125 after bidder3 bid $125 at the last second. bidder2 got his bid in first so the 'tie' goes to him, and we know that was the maximum amount bid by anyone because... the difference(0 in this case) between the winning bid and the second highest bidder was less than the increment amount.
Only in case #2 and #3 do we know the high bid. The majority of auctions that involve 2 bidders or more end up like in #1, where the winning bid is second highest bid + bid increment. So the majority of the time, we don't know by how much the second highest bidder was outbid.
Ken
My cousin just bought a Hypermax kit with a bad turbo this would be great for him.
