Buy Stuff for Cheap on eBay

Buying and selling on e-bay can save you money. It can also make you money if you learn to understand the concept.

Steps

Search for whatever item you want to bid on and click on sort (Price: Lowest First).
Mark those items to watch on your My eBay.
Watch items of interest until the last 5-10 minutes of auction.
Go to auction page and prepare proxy bid. Be cheap. Don't set proxy higher than you are willing to go. REMEMBER you will also pay shipping when you win the auction. Consider this as part of your total investment.
As late as you dare, click Know Whether to Bid or Not on eBay.
If you lose, try again on the next watched auction.
If you win, pay promptly.
Make sure you don't enter the wrong amount.

Bid during the summer or other holiday periods as many bidders are not in front of their computer so less competition.
Look for auctions that are finishing early in morning or late at night.
Bid odd values - eg $10.23 rather $10 - as most people bid in round numbers.
Watch out for postage. Many sellers compensate for low prices (and avoid fees!) by charging high postage.
Many auctions finish without any bids because the seller has made spelling mistakes in their auction eg Britney Spears. These are potential bargains. Search using alternate spellings.
Never overbid on an item there are a lot of - if there's another item identically priced, bid only a little on the first, and push them both up at the same rate, until you are the winning bidder.
If you aren't available during the end of the auction, consider using a third-party bidder. These tools also allow you to bid at the last minute so you can avoid getting into bidding wars.
REMEMBER: people will buy anything and every thing so if you think that something is outrageous chances are that people will want it somewhere.
Look out for free or cheap listing days. There are usually a lot more auctions chasing the same amount of bidders in the week after these so great potential for bargains.
If you are paying by PayPal - do a quick search in Google for PayPal codes. Often you can get sizable discounts on your final purchase cost or free postage.