When bidding on an item, I generally bid the maximum I'm happy to pay.  If someone beats it, then hey-ho, I've lost out.  I was bidding on an item and was willing to pay £59.01.  So that's what I bid, then forgot about the auction.

I received the "you've been outbid" email actually after the auction had finished (good one, eBay).   Here's how the bids ended;

An_ebay_user:  £61
Me:  £59.01
Another_ebay_user:  £42

So, had "an_ebay_user" not bidded, I'd have won the auction at a cost of £43.00 (being £1 higher than "another_ebay_user") - great.  Some hours later, I received a 2nd chance offer to purchase the item, but the amount was for £59.01  That is £0.99 less than the person who won the item, and the full amount of my maximum bid.

The seller was very pleasant, but couldn't grasp the fact that had the bidder (who decided not to buy) not bid, I would not have been asked to pay £59.01 - I'd have had to pay just £43.
Conclusion

Although I had placed a higher maximum, I did not think it quite fair of either the seller or eBay to ask me to pay a higher amount than I should have, based on what I perceive to be a fraud buyer (bid with no intention to pay).