Go to www.ebay.com/ or your local eBay web page, e.g. ebay.com.au/.
(From the bottom of that www.ebay.com page, you can find links to all of the worldwide websites).

At www.ebay.com, follow the instructions there – (1 Find, 2 Buy, 3 Pay).  To get into the tutorial about how to use it, click on section 2 or 3.

For other national eBay websites, you might need to click on site map to find the appropriate "how to" or "Buyer Guide" page.

The following comments from the former Hillman Discussion List might clarify how your maximum bid is treated by eBay :

This message forwarded by the Hillman List.

Nice car, but it went way above my guess.  Can one of you Ebay buyers/sellers out there explain some funny things about the bidding process?  If you look at the 16 bids you see:
1) edumarest raised his own bid twice, both while he was high bidder
2) edumarest twice bid below the top bid (even software can't be that dumb)

Just curious.

Thanks

Al

This message forwarded by the Hillman List.

Alex

I don't have the link for this so can't comment specifically, but in relation to the second point, it is common for bids to be recorded below the top bid after that bid has been made.  It happens when someone comes in early and bids high.

Lets say an item is listed with a starting price of $10, I see it first and decide I have to have it and bid $50.  If no-one else bids, I get it for $10, not $50.  Later bidders are not shown my maximum bid, unless they exceed $50 they will keep being told they have been outbid – so they might bid $15 then $20 then $25 then give up – all bids recorded, but my $50 still beats them.  If it ends there I get it for a bit over $25.

One item I'm watching at the moment has 7 bids – the highest was the first made.

Vic

This message forwarded by the Hillman List.

Al,
I think that happens when someone enters a bid and it doesn't surpass the existing bid.
In effect what it does is effectively raises the original bidders amount to the incremental amount above the new unsuccessful bid.

Bernie

This message forwarded by the Hillman List.

I was watching a UK ebay auction for a Sebring Cov.... and noticed that one bidder seemed to be forcing the price up.  I looked at where he came from (Easily done) and saw that he was registered in the same town as the seller.  It was bid up to within a 100GBP of the sellers reserve = and there it hung.  Finally finished and didn't fetch that extra bid!  It's called (in USA) 'Shill' bidding – and is in fact a crime.

Also there is 'sniping'.  Your connection speed will determine how late you can throw in a bid.

Alan P