Originally Posted by psyko514

You do place a max bid initially, however your actual bid only goes as high as needed to beat the current bid. Then, if someone bids higher than your actual bid, the system proxy bids for you up to your max bid.

For example, say the current bid is $195 with $5 increments and I'm willing to bid up to $400. I put in my max bid of $400 and the actual bid will go up to $200 with me as the winner. If someone comes along and bids $205, the system will proxy bid for me to $210 and I'll still be the current winner. If someone comes along and bids $350, the system will bump my bid to $355. And if someone comes along and bids $401, they'll be the winner.