I have tried to win 2 antique books on ebay lately, and was outbid!

If you're looking for certain books, you might want to try going to Bookfinder: http://www.bookfinder.com It's a free book search service that will pull up copies of the book you are looking for from places that sell used books online (like Abe.com, alibris.com, amazon.com etc). So you might be able to find a copy of what you're looking for cheaper or for the same amount. With eBay, I agree with what everyone says. If you can be online when the auction ends, then try to place in your highest bid at the last few seconds. I tested this a few days ago and won something that I wanted for my sons birthday. Good luck... :)

Well dont feel bad, I have cable high speed internet and still get outbid all the time! What I do if I cant constantly watch in the last few minutes is use esnipe dot com. I put like $10 i think on my esnipe account and it's lasted me over a year now without me having to put anything else on (I think they put the $10 as points and its a certain number of points per the price you are bidding). But its been awhile since i actually used it. When I use that I almost always win, I just forget to go and use it most of the time, lol!

You need to snipe! I know it is hard with dialup though. I usually wait until the last 10 seconds to bid. Make sure you put the max you want to pay at the very last moment possible. Even if you can do it in the last minute that would be okay. They also have sniping services that will bid for you. They work very well, but they do cost money.

when I REALLY want the item I will set my highest bid, submit but not confirm it... so it sits there on the ready and I just need to press the one button and voila! meanwhile I have another window open with the item's listing so I can check it periodicaly for time left and how much it has gone up. I also have the dreaded dial up which has only connected at 26.4 for the past few weeks.

Your discussion might get deleted because you said you will give a + to everyone but I will respond with hope that you read this before it is deleted. There are programs and maybe even websites called "ebay sniper". I don't use them so I can't tell you a lot about it. I know you put in your maximum bid and it will bid for you at the last second. That way the bid doesn't get ran up by the ebay seller's friends or other bidders. Good luck.

I was going to say pretty much the same thing as 4MyGirls. The only thing I'd change or add is that I usually wait until the last 10 or 15 seconds before I bid, and I usually have the bid all the way up to the final confirm button. Your dial-up connection shouldn't be such a big disadvantage in that situation.