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See my post below for the optimal techniques and strategy to maximize your results with CigarBid:
http://www.cigarbid.com/...Bidding-war#post4382877 Put another way, basically, your odds of winning are better if:
1. you bid as early as possible and NEVER MODIFY bids, and
2. you select auctions with high quantities, not just 1 item.
#1 is because for the same dollar amount, an earlier bid takes precedence over a later bid. So if you and some guy both bid $20, you'll win over him if you placed the bid earlier than he did. Modifying an existing bid puts you "at the back of the line" again, so never do it.
#2 is because if there are 5 or 10 items in an auction, cheapa$$ lowball bids are more likely to work than if there is only 1 item. If there's only 1, there will be fierce competition for it. If there are 10, the competition is spread among more units, and if there are 9 guys who made serious bids plus you who made a crazy-low bid, you're getting the item for that tiny price. If there were 1 or 2 or 3 units, you'd lose.
So given #1 and #2 above, you wait till a large number of auctions have just opened simultaneously (at midnight each night, usually), then immediately pull up a list of these newly-opened auctions sorted by quantity descending, and totally ignore low-quantity auctions. For the high-quantity auctions you rapidly look at them and place $1 starting bids with crazy-low AutoBid maxes, and you do it as fast as you possibly can.
When you run out of auctions that have just opened moments ago and have high quantities, you do NOTHING, because remember, modifying bids sends you to the back of the priority line and can lead to last-minute impulsive bidding wars, too. Your rule is to make lots of bids right after midnight, then DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING after that. You just sit there and watch.
If your AutoBid maxes are cheapa$$ and "chiselly" enough, you'll only win a tiny percentage of auctions, but they'll be amazingly good deals when you do win, and if you do this in high enough volume, even a tiny percentage of wins will get you a good amount of ultra-cheap stuff.
Hope that helps.
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