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I win most every auction I bid on by following these simple procedures...
1. I know the item's value in the minds of other eBay users by watching similar items come up for sale and go to other bidders.
2. I know what I can get the item new for online from another source and I make sure I'm not spending more than I should be.
3. I watch the item and set alarm clocks and ask my wife to remind me when the auction is about to end.
4. I insure I am logged in and ready to bid by placing a sample bid a minute or two before the auction closes, but I do not confirm the bid. This also helps me check the speed of my connection. If it's slow, I consider this and adjust the time I need to snipe it.
5. I wait until there is 15 seconds on the auction left and jam in my highest price plus a few extra dollars and cents to make sure my bid is an oddball one... ie, $546.69. This weeds out all the "add a buck and rebid" people.
6. I walk away and come back after its closed.
Now another thing I do is to look at the ending time of the auction. If its mid-day on a Tuesday, that item isn't going to go for much unless it's a business product. A personal item won't have a lot of bidders because they're not able to tear away from work to bid. I've gotten a lot of great stuff for really cheap in these auctions. Sunday evening auctions always make more than Tuesday afternoon auctions, that's for sure.
For example, I just bought a black carpet rear storage unit (the one you mount the speakers in) for $50 last week. The seller had no pix on the item, and quoted a hundred bucks for shipping. A quick email to him to ask for a reasonable price on shipping and confirmation that it was the plastic box and not the vinyl one and I was going for it. The auction closed at 3 pm on Thursday. They guy had no idea what it was worth and how to list stuff on eBay.
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