Actually, no one but the winning bidder (and ebay) knows what the highest bid was. Because the winning bid was .50 cents above your maximum does not mean that the final bid was only .50 cents higher than yours. The final bid may have been $10 higher than your bid, but the bidder was awarded the lot at .50 cents over the second highest bidder. Had your bid been $9.50 cents higher, the top bidder still would have gotten the lot for .50 cents above your bid.