Hi
I have never used ebay before (determined to get to grips with it one day!!) but there is an item which we really want up for bidding.  Could someone who understands this just let me know what the best way to try to get this is please.  Should we put in a bid now or wait until the last minute (Tuesday evening).  Do we put in our highest bid now or will this be seen by the other bidders and alert them of our interest?
Thanks and sorry if this seems a particularly stupid question!

Put it in at the last moment possible.  Bid to the highest you would be willing to pay because you will not have a chance to up it but will only have to pay what it takes to beat the competition.  Don't forget to check out the sellers feedback thoroughly and try and do a bit of research into what similar items go for.  Don't panic if you loose out, unless it is a very rare item another one will be along before long.  :)

Just don't forget until 3 minutes before and then find out your computer can't get onto the internet as I have done in the past :d :d

treacle, I never bid the way Isabel does but rather put my top bid in at the start.  This way I never bid more than I can afford or the item is worth which is what I have done in the past.  The bidding only goes up incrementally so if you put in £275 as your max bid and other people are bidding the way Isabel does then the item may stay at 99p until 20mins before the auction ends. Other people don't see the amount you have bid, only what the bid is sitting at now and ebay have recently put measures in place to stop unsolicited selling offers and now nobody can see the names of people who are bidding, they are just logged as bidder 1 etc.

Part of the fun is that everyone has different bidding styles because if everyone bid like me then there would be no excitement at the end.  I also always research the item i'm bidding on and find out what it is worth on the high street etc. and check review websites for info about the products.  I don't know if I can name them on here but if you type in 'review of...' in your search engine loads will come up.

if you think champdogs is addictive you ain't seen nothing yet.  welcome to the world of ebay!

It's not just excitement it's psychology :)  If I bid £275 early on in the game someone else may bid £100, see they are beaten and keep bidding up.  If I hold out in my bidding they will probably stay at their £100 and I will get it for £101.   I might also be tempted to bid over my original plan if they bid £280 because I am susceptible to getting twitchy too :)

like I said it is just as well we are all different.

I always bid in the last 30 seconds too!  If I'm interested in an item that has already got a bid, I used to think, "I'll just try another £5" until I've pushed the price to my limit and then say "If you want it THAT much, you can have it! 

I've been far more successful to put my best price in at the last minute. :)

PS  I always put in an odd amount just over my price eg £51.62, in case someone else has bid a nice round number like £50! ;)

Oh well, at least you can tell yourself you made the other blighter pay for it! :D

I always do as Isobel does. I wait until the last moment and then I bid the maximum that I am happy to pay.
Say the item is at £10 and you are prepared to pay up to £50, then bid £50 in the last 90seconds. It doesn't then give time for other bidders to keep putting new bids in. If someone else has also put a top bid in already of say £60, then they will win the item, but at least you you were bidding up to your maximum.

If you put your maximum bid in early, then other interested parties will keep putting fresh bids in to try and outbid you, so all that happens is that you force the final sale price of the item up.

I bid the same way as Isabel and a nearly always 'win' :)  I like to let it go right to the wire and try to bid in the last 10 seconds but I wouldn't necessarily recommend leaving it that late to bid as obviously there is no margin for error.

There are also 'sniping' programmes that you can use which you can set to bid in the final seconds too.  I have used them successfully once or twice when I haven't been able to be at the PC for the close of an auction. 

Good luck :)

I take no prisoners...and am an annoying sniper and Bid Burglar! :D

Don't know the technicalities of it but my daughter does a sort of automatic bidding. Somehow she uses a programme that will bid for her up to her maximum bid in increments of say £1 a time. So if she is willing to pay up to £20, for instance, she would start off with the minimum bid of say £1 and every time someone else bids the programme automatically ups the bid so she is the highest bidder up until her maximum is reached. She seems rather successful in her bidding and doesn't go over her self set bidding limit and doesn't even have to be around to make a bid if someone else tops hers.

Someone more computer minded will be able to tell you how you set this up in your ebay account as I personallly don't have a clue :)

trouble with that is, it gives the other bidders time to outbid you, and to push up the price :) Good if you are selling, bad if you are buying. I always leave it right to the very end, then put my bid on, as someone else said in an odd amount (say £10.83p) to try to top the other persons 'rounded' figure.
I always 'watch' whatever I am interested in, then if the price has not gone over what I'm prepared to pay, I bid right at the end.

Thank you all so much, this is really really helpful!  So, if yesterday the highest bid was say £100 (bidder 3) and today someone bid £150 (bidder 4) and the bid from bidder 3 immediately went up to £160 we can assume that bidder 3 may have actually bid more than this but there is no way of telling how much (is that right if it makes sense?).  After reading all the posts and watching the auction I think we are going to put in our highest bid last minute.  If we put in say £300 and bidder three has put in £250 we get the item for a bit over £250 but do not have to pay £300??  If we put in £250 then bidder three gets the item if they bid that amount first so whatever is our highest bid it is best to try an odd amount (say 250.50).  Pheww - have I got this vaguely right??  I am addicted already and my partner who always takes the mickey out of my obsession with Champdogs is very impressed and says thank you!!

A good tip too is in the final minutes have 2 windows for ebay open on your browser.I have 1 showing the item which I keep refreshing and another set up at the bid now stage to go in with a final bid in the last minute. :)

Oh and I forgot to add,you're right to go in with odd amounts like £253.29 for example

I do the two windows thing!

There are two stages to bidding.  You put in your amount and then they get you to confirm.  You will need to set it up to the first stage rather than leaving it to the last minute.  You then only have to hit the confirm button and it should go through in seconds.

Thanks everyone.  The seller withdrew the item last night!!  Will have to buy something else now just to try it.

Its a pain when that happens! I think the seller realises what people are doing, and if they are not going to get the price they want they withdraw. Thats why I always start mine at the lowest price i would accept, or if over £50 I put a low reserve, £50 being the lowest reserve you can place. I have watched something till the end, waiting to pounce, and believe me the price can rocket in the final mins :D Which is why I always put the highest bid on last, just before it goes through. then just wait and see, but its a pain when someone else outbids you, especially if by a few pence :D :D....the joys of ebaying :P :P

Do thoroughly check out what your maximum price should be :) :) I saw a book on Ebay which I was interested in, but it eventually went for far more than I could buy it second-hand on Amazon :) :)

Daisy