This bidding 'war' is what sniping trys to avoid. In many cases, the other bidder would have placed thier $15.00 bid, then you would have swooped in at the last second (ok, last few seconds) and bid your $20.00, hopefully not giving the other bidder the opportunity to place their $25.00 bid, which would have won it for you at $16.00 instead of the $26.00 in the example.
Let's see if I can explain it ...
Auction starts off at $10.00.
You place a bid for $20.00. eBay will show your bid as $10.00
Someone else bids at $15.00. eBay will now show your bid as $16.00 (assuming a $1.00 bid increment)
Someone else bids $25.00. eBay will show your bid as $20.00 (your max amount)
You bid again, this time at $30.00. eBay will show two bids from you - the $20.00 original one, and one for $26.00 ($1.00 more than the previous high bid of $25.00).
This bidding 'war' is what sniping trys to avoid. In many cases, the other bidder would have placed thier $15.00 bid, then you would have swooped in at the last second (ok, last few seconds) and bid your $20.00, hopefully not giving the other bidder the opportunity to place their $25.00 bid, which would have won it for you at $16.00 instead of the $26.00 in the example.
This bidding 'war' is what sniping trys to avoid. In many cases, the other bidder would have placed thier $15.00 bid, then you would have swooped in at the last second (ok, last few seconds) and bid your $20.00, hopefully not giving the other bidder the opportunity to place their $25.00 bid, which would have won it for you at $16.00 instead of the $26.00 in the example.