Bid “Sniping” an ebay auction
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Sniping-Is-it-Good-Strategy-for-Winning-Auctions-/10000000001548836/g.html
The linked article discusses what the author believes to be dominant strategies for EBay bidding. The article discusses the misconception held by many bidders that bid “sniping” the act of waiting until moments before the end of the auction to incrementally raise the price to win the auction. This is flawed because EBay uses a system known as proxy bidding in whom the auction effectively becomes a second price auction.
Bidders bid their value and EBay will automatically bid the smallest denominator above the current value if it is still below the bidder’s value. This in essence defeats the effectiveness of bid sniping because EBay will most likely automatically re-raise the value above what the sniper has just bid. With this knowledge the author of the article recommends bidding your value or perhaps bidding your value plus one cent to slightly increase your odds of winning