I think you're simply being outbid. I could enter a proxy bid on eBay for $100 days before auction end. Every time someone enters a bid under $100 after that, eBay will increase my bid to one increment higher than your's. If you're sniping and your bid gets entered a couple of seconds before the auction end then the bidder with the highest max bid will always win by 1 increment. The fact that you're losing by 1 increment most likely indicates that you had the second highest bid. By how much you were second you don't know, it could be a lot. There could also be other bidders whose max bid was within 1 increment of of your's and also came in second. The fact that you're losing by 1 increment also indicates that there were not multiple people with max bids more than 1 increment over yours. That last part might mean that you're pricing the items very well or a little on the high side and someone is grossly overbidding.