Originally Posted by Nick Siebers 
Best Ebay strategy -
Bid once, whatever you think it is worth to you, or that you are willing to pay. Check back after the auction. If you do not win, even if just barely outbid, someone paid too much for it.
You may wish to wait until close to the auction end time to bid, to avoid giving other bidders info.
It helps if you already have too much camera stuff, so that when you lose it really is for the better.
To me the best strategy is to use something like
auctionsniper , set the highest price you'd like to pay, and let auctionsniper to bid for you in the last seconds. Worked for me several times
Sometimes you can also try you luck w/ some 'best offer' deals. I just won an MX+M50/1.7 combo for $80 (my best offer, which was about 35% lower than the seller's BIN price), hopefully the camera is in good working condition as stated in the ad ...