Seeking knowledge from savvy ebayers..

That's how eBay works.

If you bid for something you can put in the maximum your willing to pay, say $10. If the item is currently $5 it will bid up in $0.50 lots to your maximum bid, if someone has a max bid higher than the $10 say $20 then you would need to bid $20.50 to out bid them. In this case if you were the only two bidding the item price would be $10.50 on the eBay screen and say bid $10.50 or more.. But really you need to bid $20.50 to be the highest bidder. If you put in $30 as your maximum bid the new price you would pay is $20.50. But if someone put in $25 as ther max bid you would automatically outbid them. New price would be $25.50.

Hope that makes sense.

I usually try to figure out how much is the maximum I'll pay than put that in as my bid in the last minute of the auction, makes it harder for people to outbid you. Don't bid early it inflates the price and encourages other to bid.

Yes, that is how it works.

..but there are automatic bidding programs out there, which usually means its a waste of time bidding on anything until the last moment, as some people will bid just that little bit more at the last second.

You do seem to get people that have another account to bid things up though, well at least that was my impression. I have had a few times where I let the 'other' bidder win it, and within a minute I have had an email saying the winning bidder had not paid and the seller was offering me a second chance offer. All within a few minutes of the auction ending..

Cheers dudes...I can't believe I got a straight answer out of the seabreeze forum... How refreshing...

Mark, its one of those things. If someone uses it, then it encourages others to use it.

I am sure ebay could stop it though. All they would have to do is make every bid have the person answer a question, and it would stop the sniping programs from working. This suggests that they aren't bothered by it.

Even if you don't want to use a sniping program, you can queue up bids manually and confirm then when you want to place the bid. It works similarly, and is just as effective, but you have to do it yourself.

I can't remember the last time I bid on anything in a normal auction though, and stick to buy it now stuff, as I get mucked around less.

I agree. This is why people use sniping programs. That way the amount you bid is really only if you have to. Doing it earlier, as you have noted, just pushes up the price.

Sometimes I have bid up things I really want early, in an attempt to discourage people as they think the price is already too high. It doesn't work that well either, as there are always going to be people that will snipe. It sometimes reduces the competition though, as they realise people are willing to pay what its worth.

I prefer auctions like Grays Online, where if it goes past the defined finish time, they give you 10 minutes after the last bid to also bid, and the auction keeps going until there are no more bids for 10 minutes. I think this is much fairer, and really does let you bid just that bit more if you suddenly decide it really is worth just that little bit more.