Auction Question

[Erin]

Ok, I'm bidding in a rather fast-paced auction right now: the item is quite valuable, but the current bids are much lower than the market value, making this a potentially very profitable buy. The auction has less than 40 minutes left right now, and people are outbidding each other every other minute. The question I want to ask is, how soon does an auction close? When are users no longer allowed to bid? I'm afraid of staying on top of the bids and then having someone sneak in and outbid me at the very last second.

post script- forgive my ignorance, this is really my first auction ever.

[Ken]

The auctions are closed and the users are no longer allowed to bid when time runs out. They have a timer on top of every auction :

Time Left in Auction : 0:00:15

When it gets down to 0:00:00 the auction is over, and no more bids are allowed.

[Chipper]

I like to bid when time is nearing the end that way it doesn't go as high and your not out bidding yourself

[gabriellaeve]

I would recommend bidding in the last 5 seconds with several thousand (at least 2 increments, more if they're small increments) I just got out bid in the last 2 seconds because the other guy upped it by 6 increments, and i had only upped it by 2...so be aware of that kind of ploy- know the value of what you're bidding on, and decide what your upper range is, in the last seconds bid close to that range- and hope for the best!