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We often get asked by people how to improve their chances of winning an auction on OURWEBSITE.

There’s no 'sure-fire' winning strategy, but here are a few tips to help you get started, as well as a few of the traps that novice bidders sometimes fall into.

Place your bid late
Watch the countdown and try to place your bid in the final ten seconds. If the timer has reached this point, you know the auction will end with you as the winner unless another bid is placed.

Start with the cheapest products
Although you can get some incredible bargains on our most expensive items, they also tend to be the most competitive auctions, attracting hundreds of bidders. Our cheaper products tend to have fewer bidders, meaning you’re much more likely to win.

Use the T-matics to your advantage
The T-matics is a powerful tool, if you get the timing right you can scare off other bidders by placing one. Nobody likes to see their bids matched over and over again by your all conquering T-matics, you might just persuade them to give up and try again next time.

Turn their T-matics against them
On the other hand, some people have a ‘fire and forget’ policy with the T-matics. It is easy to tender in and win with a quick single bid if your rival has gone to make a cup of coffee safe in the knowledge that their T-matics will protect them.
We’ve noticed that users tend to set the ‘Bid To’ value of their T-matics to a round number, so watch out for this and you might be able to snap up a bargain by simply clicking on the “Bid” button when T-matics has just finished.

Keep an eye on what other bidders are up to
You can see the details of the last ten bids placed: try to work out who’s bidding and when they’re bidding. It’s all about timing, so maybe you can work out when the right time is to jump in and grab the lot.

Scout out the competition
Look and see how many different bidders have recently bid on an auction. You're more likely to win if there are fewer bidders interested in the item than if there are lots of competing bidders.

Bid at the right time of day
The number of bidders varies throughout the day – smart bidders can use this to pick up bargains by bidding when others are busy having breakfast or taking the dog for a walk.

Fine-tune your T-matics
If you use T-matics to bid on your behalf, it’s best not to set your ‘Bid To’ value to a round number – other bidders will be watching out for this (see above!).