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I've been on ebay for years and year and years...back before it was ebay, in fact. I even have a copy of the official ebay book autographed by ebay's founder in appreciation of my help in their computer area. Ah, those were the days.
Back on topic, more and more bids come at the last minute (my last purchase I bid at the last second, just to cut it close). Its your best bidding strategy, for various reasons, if you can pull it off. Regardless, your best plan is to search the completed auctions for similar items, see what price range they sell for, figure out your maximum bid, and then place it as late as is convenient for you. Be careful not to get caught up in a bidding war; many people do and overpay.
The funny thing is that I see a lot of sellers complaining about how low the prices are, and buyers complaining about high they are. There are bargains to be had, but you have to be patient and know your prices to find them.
As far as sellers manipulating bids, its not that prevelant, from what I can see. Certainly very few reputable (high feedback) sellers will risk this, since they will get banned from ebay if caught (and ebay has software that does search out suspicious bidding patterns). In general, you can always deal with this by merely bidding the amount you want to pay, and, worst case, you'll have to pay that amount. I always bid lower than retail, and lower still for new sellers who might be playing such games. your risk from a bad seller (versus, say, Wal-mart) is higher on ebay, so you should pay lower than retail to take into account the fact that some of your purchases will be disappointing - perhaps not is as good condition as expected, damaged in shipping, etc.
Ironically, one of the areas that is the worst is the one I'm usually in - computers. Fraud tends to be higher (its easier to claim to have, oh, 10 of the latest PCs and then "sell" them to the highest bidder), plus prices tend to be close to retail, so I generally don't buy from there (but I do sell..anyone need a 15Gig harddrive? he he ). Plus no rebates from ebay purchases. Other problem areas include video games and music (illegal copies) and antiques (repros instead of the real thing), but buy from a "good" seller and you can do well there.
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