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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Valentinian, post: 2434797, member: 44316&quot;]I believe many ancient-coin collectors do not know what coins they want are worth (in spite of being able to look them up in many places on the web). They use the bids of other bidders to make up their mind.&nbsp; Other collectors who bid early give them information about what the coin is worth and how high they need to go. </p><p><br /></p><p>eBay reduces your &quot;bid&quot; (really a maximum, not a bid) to an increment above the second highest bidder at the time. So, theoretically, you could bid your maximum and sit back to see what happens. However, we all know that bids are often exceeded in the last few seconds. There are at least two different possible explanations for that. Most often the sniper had a higher max all along and you were simply outbid.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, there is a complication. Suppose a late bidder is sitting at his computer. If other bidders submit their bids a bit early the late bidder gets information about the minimum the coin will sell for (&quot;is worth&quot;). He may well decide, with that information, that the coin is worth more than his previously intended maximum and submit a higher late bid if he has a few seconds to do so. I know I have intended to bid X and watched an auction near closing exceed X, prompting me to submit a bid higher than I originally intended. Then bidders who bid 30 seconds early may lose out, or have the bid pushed up even if their max was high enough to win it.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Therefore, you don&#039;t want to bid early. I recommend eSnipe. It is very easy to use, allows you to set how much before closing you want it to bid for you (seven seconds?), allows bids to be changed up to five minutes before closing, keeps clear track of your maxima and wins and losses, and costs 1% of wins (only), which you pay for by using previously-acquired &quot;bidpoints&quot; (with PayPal), although they often have a free introductory period.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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