A1 How to make the winning bid

I'd been a member for several years where I didn't actively participate in buying or selling. Then when I did bid on an item I almost always lost. Then my brother self-proclaimed okaying pro, let me in on his secret to successfully making those winning bids. The biggest thing about this strategy is patience! Wait until the bidding is almost over usually around 5 mins. You can wait until it's even close if there has been any other bidders. Here, having a high speed internet connection can also play a key role. You bid and if you're out bid by a previous bidder you can quickly bid again. With your quick actionyou can say,I WON! The only gamble with this is if the person who bid before you put their maximum bid at a high amount. You could match it with an equally high maximum but since they were the originally winning bidder they would win. However, for the most part this keeps things from escalating past high rates. Lets say, I bid on an item that won't be closed for two more hours. I put my maximum bid at $200, the current bid is only $123. They immediately see my bid and rebid to out-do me. Now they have time and we can go back and forth raising the cost higher and higher over the next two hours. Where if you had just waited until it was almost over, chances are it wouldn't have had the potential to go nearly as high. This doesn't always work but when it does you can rest assured that you made a better deal, and if it didn't work you can realize that you probably saved yourself from spending a lot more if you had started bidding earlier.SO save money bid smarter! = Another thing to keep in mind is what you are bidding on. Make yourself decide on what the maximum amount you would spend on the item is and make sure to include the cost of shipping! Read the contents of listing thoroughly. There are a lot of sneaky thieves. I've been in the market for a new/gently used laptop. I've gee accross some astounding attempts of deception. Several of these laptops have high specs good processors, memory, etc. Then you get to read the fine print and find that there something wrong with it. The most notable of which were a couple that had broken screens. There were bids close to $200 for these things. Now I'm hoping that these people know how much the value of the geputer they are purchasing is, and how to either fix it themselves or know how much it's going to cost to get it fixed. Another big big no-no. These people who say they don't know the condition of an item, it's sold as is, and no returns. Chances are you are not bidding on anything worth the price of shipping. Scour these descriptions over because if you get your item and it's broken you'll have no recourse of action if you missed it in their description what the condition of the item is when you bought it. You also need to be sure to research what you are purchasing. For example, I would love to own one of those Everio Camcorders but when it get down to it, there are a few different types on of which has a "MicroDisc" 4GB which is way smaller than the more recent 20GB and 30GB hard drives. But they will show you the pictures they look very similar, and will tell you all the features even give the model of the camera, but have you looked it up to find out what this model is capable of, it's limitations, and how it is worth far less than the other models. Don't let some sneek get off with your hard earned cash.