Time your highest bid for the last 5 or 10 seconds of the auction. Don't try to barely beat the current high bid either. Bid your full highest bid right in the last few seconds. That will defeat most of the automatic bidding software programs out there, and will also defeat both casual ebay bidders and people who are retarded enough to keep bidding items up 50 cents at a time for no real reason. If the current bid is $4.50, the existing highest bidder has a $7 highest bid in the system, and you bid $10 at the last second, you'll win with the next bid increment over $7 and won't even have to pay the full $10, just enough to beat the other guy's max bid.
Trying to consciously outbid someone over a laser pointer, I ended up giving up at $15. The next day, I got the exact same laser pointer for $5 even though the same retard who outbid me the day before was also trying to get another laser pointer.
Of course, some other guy got the same pointer 2 days later for 99 cents simply because he had his auto bid software to bid 99 cents for every single laser on ebay, but it takes persistence to bottom-feed like that.
The big thing is never bid your max early on. You can place a low bid early to indicate interest and gauge how aggressive others are bidding, but don't get serious about it until the end. If you place a couple of early low bids and notice the same guy consistently beats your bid a minute or two later, you are either facing a guy who has placed an early high bid or someone with automatic software. If you absolutely MUST have that item, then you're screwed and will have to keep raising the bid. But if you simply want a good deal, then place a reasonable bid in the last few seconds. If you win, cool. If not, there will almost always be another shot at the same item or something similiar later on in another auction.
