"DoN. Nichols" writes:

When I (really my wife is doing the bidding since she has the
account, I am simply doing the selecting and providing the money) am
interested in something, I decide what it is worth to me -- usually
with a bit of a fudge factor to make sure that I am above people bidding
an even amount), and try to get that bid in as close to the last minute
as practical with the current net response time. If someone else wants
it also, and puts in a bid of what *they* are willing to pay for it,
then it is a toss-up as to which of us will get it. Whoever wants it
more (as measured by our bids) will get it -- unless someone starts the
bidding early and gets in a bidding war with someone else who also
starts early, and often enough winds up paying more for it than *new*
price. In a bidding war, the only winner is the vendor. The low bidder
is a loser in that he did not get what he wanted, and the high bidder is
a loser in that he paid more than was reasonable for it.

I use a sniping tool called jbidwatcher. I decide what the item is
worth to me, set a snipe to go off a few seconds before the auction
expiration, and try not to think about it until after the expiration.

I recently got a cylindrical slide rule -- I was second bidder for
something like half a dozen of them before I finally won. And I got
one in basically "new" condition for quite a bit less than one of the
people who'd beat me got a terribly beat up one a couple of weeks
earlier. That's the way the game works....