Quote Originally Posted by swan24
Putting your max bid down early doesn't strike me as being a very effective way of getting an item at a good price, IMHO... Esp. with people who do not do their homework on the item, and would just bid it up... The best way is to lay back, and bid your max within the last ten seconds or so... The last three if you think any of the other bidders is using a sniping program... I've manually outbid sniping programs before, but it takes a steady hand...

As far as understanding how eBay works, I'm pretty savvy... That's why I started this thread...

I guess the way I originally put it mislead people into thinking that I either wanted it real cheap, or that I didn't know what I was talking about... I was merely lamenting the fact that newbies on eBay are driving up prices on tube gear beyond what I feel is a fair price... The venue is turning into a place where you can no longer get a good deal, which, in my opinion, is what the whole exercise was about at the onset... (m.)
Sorry but I am still lost here. If you expect that the unit will sell at or near $185 when it's all said and done, why do you care that early bids are at $20? What is the difference if it's at $20 now or hours before it goes upwards to $185?

When I bid on something, I don't even bother bidding til the last day as long as the price is still within range. I just can't get my head wrapped around how an early bid of $20 is skewing anything out of proportion or driving the price too high when you expect it to go up to $185.

Are you saying that these early bids of next to nothing are going to make the last bid way over $185, like maybe $205.50?