eBay can be a great place to find bargains, or hard to locate items. It’s also a treasure trove for collectibles, unique items, and pretty much everything from used books to automobiles. You can get some excellent buys if you are a savvy shopper, but sometimes what you want slips away at the last minute, bought out from under you by someone who was a sharper bidder.

Let’s say you’re after a collectible item like a Kliban cat teapot. If the auction expires in six days, and there are already two or three bids on it, you know this is going to be a popular item and may require some strategy in bidding.

Should you bid your maximum amount right off the bat? That depends on whether you’re going to be around to up the bid at virtually the last minute. If not, then go ahead and put down the max. Other bidders who are just testing the waters may up their own bids, and after being shown they are outbid, will drop out of the running. Otherwise, it’s generally best to wait to bid until the auction ends, to keep prices from going to high and help ensure you’ll get the item for the price you want it.

The alternative is to make note of the time the auction ends, and “sit” on the item, refreshing the page constantly for the last few minutes, to see how high the bid has gone. Some bidders are very adept at entering a new bid, and slipping it in under the wire with only seconds left. eBay offers features like reminding you of which items you’re watching and can even remind you on your cell phone, if you’re so inclined.

When bidding on small items, like a necklace or craft supplies, most bidding increments are in .25 or .50 amounts. Make your bid an odd number that falls in between those figures, so that if you bid $6.93, and someone else starts out at an amount that ends in .25, .50, or .75, they will be forced to bid in that increment, and may very well give up at $6.75.

Now that you have some great bidding strategies to start with, open your free eBay account today!