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I raised my maximum bid and the current bid increased. How did that happen?
In most cases you cannot outbid yourself. However, there are two exceptions.

1. If you are tied with another bidder but are currently the high bidder because you placed the bid first, then if you place another bid to raise your maximum, the bid will increase automatically to protect itself against the tie bid.
2. If your current high bid is between bid increments and you place another bid, your bid will increase to the next round increment. For example, if you are high bidder at $101 and you increase your maximum bid, your bid would round up to $105. If your high bid is $100 rather than $101, the amount will not change (unless of course you are tied with another bidder).

I was outbid by less than a full increment. What happened?
It is entirely possible for someone to lose a lot in Internet bidding by less than a full bid increment. What happens is that the winning bidder will independently bid a small amount higher than the underbidder. Since a bidder is only required to bid at least the amount of the next highest increment, and since no one knows what anyone's maximum bid is other than their own, the current bid will rise possibly from well below the maximum bid to the lesser of the actual maximum made by the new high bidder and one increment above what the underbidder has bid.

In other words, if your maximum bid is $800 and the current bid is $310, a new bidder would be entitled to bid any amount of $320 or higher because the next increment above the current bid is $320. If the new bidder bids any amount above your maximum bid, he would then become the high bidder on the lot.