ajlafleche:
2. Bid once with the maximum you're willing to pay for a given item. Never look back nd NEVER get involved in a bidding war.
That ensures you are more likely to pay the most for a given item or you get outbid and lose. I agree that you should bid the maximum you're willing to pay, but the way I do it, there's no looking back. I generally bid with 10 to 6 seconds left unless I won't be available at the end of an auction (like asleep, on the road, etc.).
For example, seller lists a $50 kit for $10 + $10 s/h. Let's say your LHS sells it for $50 + 6% sales tax or $53 total out the door. The most you'd like to pay would be less than $53 delivered, because if the final bid was $43, you could get the kit at the store for the same amount and get it right now.
If you place a $40 bid, the opening bid shows $10. A newbie comes by and decides to bid as well. These newbies will up the bid by .50 to a dollar at a time until the price goes out of his range, he loses interest or he finally outbids you.
But if you let the newbie be the first bidder, he's probably going to lowball the bid and maybe only bid $15. Sometimes they just bid the opening amount. Once the kiddies are done playing and upping the bid by nickle and dime amounts, it's either at a high price and you move on to another great deal or they finished messing around and stopped, let's say around $20.
A few minutes before the auction end, you long on and place your $40 bid. Most likely you'll get the item for a minimal amount over the current bid of $20, probably around $21.
If I'm not getting the kit for 40-60% off of retail, I'm not bidding. That percentage includes shipping. I'm not going to try to bid on something that delivered would be marginally less than buying it locally.