It's always aggravating to get into a bidding war with the same person repeatedly and then end up paying more than you wanted or losing the item by a penny or two.
If you lose an eBay auction by
literally "a penny or two," then it really was close, and the winner paid his or her top-bid value. Most of the time, though, the
second-highest bid sets the price on eBay; eBay's proxy bidding system sets the winning price to the second-highest bidder's maximum bid plus an increment value (with a few exceptions, such as if the high bid is higher than the second-highest by less than the increment amount). This system can be deceptive. For instance, if you bid $75 for a camera and the auction ends at $76, you might think, "if only I'd bid $77, I'd have won it!" That may not be true, though. The winning bidder might have entered a maximum bid of $80 or $180 or $1,876,279; there's no way to know without entering higher bids yourself.
That's part of the problem, really; eBay's system makes it tempting to enter a bid that's "just a little higher." An unwary person can do that, creeping up the auction price until the bidder finally realizes that he or she has entered a subjectively ridiculously high bid (although presumably not subjectively too high for whoever is retaining the high bid).
My own approach to eBay auctions is to decide what the item is worth to me and bid that amount. Period. I don't enter another bid if I lose the first one, except under specific circumstances (if I enter a low bid to block a buy-it-now sale or if I learn something new about an item, for instance). This approach is much less nerve-wracking than watching an item and entering small incremental bids, and it prevents me from entering emotionally-driven irrational bids.
Nsurit mentioned esnipe.com. This is one of several sniping sites and programs that help you enter a last-minute bid. Personally, I use
JBidWatcher, which is a Java-based sniping program that works under Windows, MacOS, Linux, and perhaps other OSes. Sniping works well with my approach to eBay bidding, and has the advantage of keeping others from entering those emotionally-driven irrational bids. I doubt if such bids are to blame in pellicle's case, though; somebody who's buying up every sample of a given camera is most likely an eBay expert who's not bidding emotionally. I would advise reviewing the sales history on such cameras to see what they typically sell for; that'll give you an idea of what you'll have to pay to get one. If you can stomach paying a price in the range you discover, keep bidding (preferably sniping). If not, don't waste your time.
