I think as a bidder your saying that you do not want to pay market value for an item on ebay. The beauty of ebay is that you need two people to want an item at a certain price to be able to bump the bidding up. You want to throw in a bid at the last second and hope that you win a deal is not a good plan to win an item that you truly want. As a bidder why not throw down a bid ASAP, so the seller knows someone is interested and won't end the auction early to another bidder on the side? As a buyer you should research the item, and determine what the value is to you as the buyer, so you don't get caught up in a bidding war and over paying for an item. If you think the value of an item is $50.00 and no more, why not just bid $50.00 the first day of the auction and see if you win? If the item goes for more, o'well the next guy may have overpaid.