Occasionally our bidders are outbid by an amount lower than the minimum bid increment (see bid increments in our Terms & Conditions). All bidders may place their max bid at anytime. As a result, you may be outbid by what seems to be an incorrect increment. The AuctionNinja system will not default to strict increments like a traditional auction if an "odd" maximum bid was left prior to meeting the bid price which would engage the next bid increment.
For example, let's say you place your maximum bid of $100 on a painting but another buyer wins the lot for $101. As stated in the bidding increments, you know the next bid should have been $105, not $101. The system will accept the $101 bid because that max bid of $101 was placed before the auction got to that next increment level.
Here's how: It's 4 p.m. on closing day and the painting is currently at $15. At 5:10 p.m. you place a maximum bid of $100. There are a few bidders at play and so by the time 5:45 comes around, the current bid is at $78 with you as the highest bidder. At 7:05 p.m. a new bidder joins in and places his maximum bid of $101. Since this new bidder's bid of $101 is above the minimum increment at the time she placed the bid, it is accepted by the system. Since there were no additional bids placed before the countdown clock ran out, the $101 bidder wins the lot because it is higher than your $100.