eBay advice

Just wanted to pass this on to anybody who bids on eBay.

When you bid on an item, it seems to be a pretty regular practice that the original vendor will also sign up with a false, first time account and try to outbid you so that he can falsely escalate the price of an item.
For instance, somebody with a really good sellers rating will put up a set of guitar strings for a really good price ($4.99). You'll bid. Then suddenly somebody else is slowly upping the price and outbidding you. In some cases it's a legitimate bidder, but in a lot of cases, it's just the original seller trying to bump up the price.

Rather than do that, an easier way to get a cheap price on the item is to see when the bid ends. ie, say it ends in 2 days, 4 hours.
Don't bid on it yet and just 'Watch' the item and set a reminder for yourself to warn you about 5 minutes before the bid ends. Then, if it's still at it's lowest price, bid for it just before the auction ends.

Nobody else has a chance to outbid you so you get the item at the low price.


I was going through the whole crapola of bidding and rebidding endlessly until I ended up paying way too much. Now I just wait till the last second and get it at the introductory price instead.

that was my practice from the very first day i went on ebay. i always waited for the last few seconds till i bid. i never realy understood why peeps started to bid on an item like 5 days before the auction ends. its just to give others - be it regular or fake bidders - the chance to outbid you.