How to decide how much to bid?
close A: This is a difficult question… from the first glance.. but once you figure out the whole or part of psychology of bidding and bidding war then it will be easy for you and it will help you to win auctions at higher rate. For example, you want to win a cell phone. You’re thinking to pay about $50 for it (please don’t forget about shipping cost, but let’s say shipping is free to simplify our situation). Many people who want the same phone would be bidding around $50 also and you will loose this auction if someone bids $50 before you. What do you do? You can specify a few cents more. It won’t hurt your budget if you put $50.01 instead of $50.00. You might be paying 1 cent extra, but since eBay uses proxy bidding system then you most probably will pay less anyway (that’s why eBay sniper is great here!). There are few people who know this rule and put $50.01 so I would personally recommend to put something like $50.03 or $50.04 — this way you will outbid several groups of people:
