... you referred to James:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bidding_change_bid.html

Applicable text follows (bold emphasis added). ----- jim o\-S
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How to Change a bid

In most cases you, as a bidder, cannot bid against yourself. However, there are a few exceptions where this can occur, and I have listed these incidents for you below.

Let's say you are tied with another bidder and you hold the official high bid because you placed that bid amount first. If you place another bid, you will lose your favored "early bird" status. As a result of putting in another bid (causing you to become a later bidder), the system will increase your bid to one bid increment more than the previous bid just so that you can keep the position of high bidder.

Another instance where it would appear that you are bidding against yourself would be if your current high bid is between bid increments. If you were to place another bid, your bid will increase to the next round bid increment.

The high bid will always try to be a full bid increment over the next highest bid. If you are currently less than one bid increment over the next highest bid, then raising your maximum bid will increase the current high bid to a full bid increment above the next highest bid.