How to Buy Items from eBay?

I just won an auction using "maximum bid" and there was money left in the "max bid."

 

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Actually not useless at all. The more people use sniping programs the less early bidding wars will happen. Those early tit for tat bidding wars often turn into emotional bidding wars that can really drive the price up. It's always annoying to see two amateurs in an early bidding war driving up the price on a coin I'm interested in.

I wish every single bidder used a sniping program. It would keep emotions out of it and not allow anyone time to rethink their maximum bid.

 

And that's why *I* always end my bids in either .02 or .52.

(Actually, I randomly vary the last digit or two. It hardly ever makes a difference, but every once in a while, it does.)

 

As a buyer, I agree completely. As a seller, I would have exactly the opposite attitude. (Although I'll bet the "winners" of those "emotional bidding wars" are also more likely to back out on the deal, leave negative or neutral feedback, file Buyer Protection claims, and so forth...)

 

There's lots of strategies, but I find the most helpful to be putting your max bid in during the last 30 seconds of an auction. If you get outbid, then the price is just more than you want to pay.
A mistake is putting your max bid in too early, like several days before an auction ends. This gives time for other bidders to discover your max bid.
Another mistake is the opposite of bidding low, like a very high bid, and assuming no one else will enter such a high bid. There is a form of "nuclear bidding", putting in a ridiculously high bid and assuming no one else will enter such a high bid, thus you win at a much lower price. The obvious danger to this is more than one bidder using the same tactic and you win, but at a ridiculous price. I've seen it happen. Don't do this. Be sensible.

 

late at night is the best time

 

non_cents posted you have to be logged in to use Max Bid so gixen.com will be useful for auctions that end when I cannot be online.