Everyone has a favorite style of bidding.  Some search for an item see what they want and immediatly put their max bid they would pay and move on, not worrying if they won or not till after the bidding is over, if they win great if not oh-well.  Others will find items and click the watch item button, not bidding till the last possible second; a gamble that no other lurkers are out there doing the very same thing.  Another style is the bidder who only raises the bid to the next min level when they are out-bid and continues to walk the price up over a period of days that the item of interest is listed.

Until now that was pretty much it with some combination of those three strategies.  Now eBay has introduced 1-click bidding and a count-down clock.  These features allow you to place a bid a the last possible second.  These features are available to you if you are a current bidder on that item.  Used correctly you can score some great deals!

When you see an item you are interested in and it is still at a bargain price that you would be happy to purchase the item at to include the persons shipping & handling, go ahead and place a small initial bid.

By placing a small initial bid instead of simply watching the item, you put yourself in the position to win the item potentially already if no one else bids.  There are millions of watchers kicking themselves over the years over items they wanted that sold for next to nothing to someone else because they had intended to be at the computer when the item closed, but things happen and for whatever reason they missed the closing only to find out a .99 cent early bid would have won the auction.

Now that you have a small bid on the item you can monitor the item from your My eBay homepage.  If you can't be at a computer when the item will close go ahead and re-bid a higher amount up to what you are willing to pay & hope for the best.  However, if you can be at a computer when the item closes click the 1-Step Bid link a few minutes before it will close.  Your screen will fade to the background and a box with a countdown timer will appear.  If the close time is more than 2 minutes away you will need to manually refresh the box by clicking on the refresh button.   If the close time is less than 2 minutes away the countdown clock refreshes automatically every 3 seconds.  eBay puts the value of the min bid required to bid and all you have to do is click the bid link and your bid quickly registered.

Have in mind your max bid before you start clicking to prevent you from getting carried away and over-bidding.  Always know what you want to spend before you bid.  Also, you do not have to bid the amount that eBay puts in the window, which is the min bid required.  A very successful strategy is to replace eBay's number with your max bid and wait until the countdown timer is within 10 seconds and register your bid.  You will beat all the individuals out there who are simply using the bid eBay has as a minimum and they won't have time to adjust.

Good Luck & Enjoy!