I think the situation here is that, in your case, His proxy bid of 15.01 was more than .50 over your standing bid at the time. The situation is that the auction started at

3.99

Chef.... bid 4.99

Your $15 bid was, in effect, $5.49, as that was the first bid increment over $4.99 which was Chef...'s high of 4.99. My GUESS is that you were sitting at $5.49 for several days. His $15.01, as I said, was more than .50 over the $5.49. The bid entry screen will instruct the bidder that they have to bid, at least. $5.99. He then inserts $15.01 and the proxy system starts entering .50 bids between the two of you until one person's bid is exhausted. Based on a .50 increment I figured that he won the bid at 14.99 with the last FULL INCREMENT bid. Since both of your proxy bids had extra money on them the proxy then bids them out to one person's max. Yours was 1 cent more than his $14.99 but his was .02 over the 14.99 so he won.

Hope that helps.

The only reason any of this worked out this way was because he was able to enter a bid that was GREATER than $5.99 which was .50 more than your standing bid of $5.49. Remember the remaining portion of your $15 bid is hidden until bid against. Thus it isn't a factor unless it is the high. So, he doesn't have to enter a proxy of .50 more than your proxy, just .50 more than the current standing bid.