Why am I being outbid immediately?

If you get an outbid notification as soon as you place your bid, another user has already placed a maximum bid on the lot equal to or higher than the bid you placed. To clarify, you are not bidding against yourself!

Should you wish to become the high bidder on the piece, you will need to continue placing bids on the lot, until you "beat" the other bidder's maximum value.

Please see “What is a maximum bid?”