[mrmopar]

I have not bid on items at an actual auction, so I have nothing to com pare, but with ebay sniping is a must!

I bid the very minimum I can to "mark" my item. This also gives me the opportunity to see who wins the auction if it's not me. Then, I set my snipe bid and wait.

If you lay your max bid out there for all to chip away at, or bid again and again to remain high bidder slowly driving the price up and up (I never understood this one), you are just asking to pay more than you need to. Now this is not something a seller wants to hear, but as bidders we all want the items as cheap as we can get them, right?

In your case, numerous bids and the winning bid placed well before the auction ended subjected you to a greater risk of losing and a much higher end price than necessary. Everytime you placed a high bid, first the one guy would chip away until he outbid you, then you'd bid again higher and he'd chip away at it. Later, 3 feedback guy did the same thing! Why keep letting them chip away at your bids. Wait and pay less!