I just want to find the source of the problem and it has been my experience that ebay uses canned replies and it probably doesnt get beyond the cust service rep pushing the response for form letter #27. I have really tried to follow your logic, but in reality the other guy would have won if his bid was placed at the same second as mine or earlier with his max bid of $1326. It wasnt it was a second later and the acknowledgement from ebay shows I was the high bidder. If someone can win by "less than the bid increment over 2nd place maximum bid" as you state then anything goes and no one including myself understands what the rules are and how to bid accordingly. Most likely the winning bidder was using sniping software and maybe one second recognition isnt long enough for it to recognize I had the high bid, in which case he should have won at $1275. From every different view using logic I can see no reasonable explanation for losing this auction. If someone can point me to a policy from ebay or AS such as 'RULE 417', where the current high bidder will lose by less than the next highest required bid increment while placing this bid after the current high bidder, then I guess I will have learned something.