Newbie Method with Follow Up (or Double Follow Up)
This is for those slow auctions. Where you don't see like 3-4 people bidding it up. You only see a few bids (or no bids), but it's a very underpriced item, and a good deal. It's cheap, but you have no idea if anyone is watching or not. Here's what I would recommend, bid a newbie bid maybe at 6-7 seconds to see if anyone is out there, and bid again, and maybe a third time.
item B, value 20,000, increment 300, 10 seconds left
bidderN 10,600np
bidderE 10,300np
bidderU 10,000np
You haven't seen anyone bid for the last 30 seconds, and there's 10 seconds left. It's a good deal, but no one is bidding. There is probably someone watching, but you can't be sure. I would bid a newbie bid at around 6-7 seconds.
item B, value 17,000, increment 300, 6 seconds left
Me 10,900np
bidderN 10,600np
bidderE 10,300np
bidderU 10,000np
Now you are in the lead, with 5 seconds to go. I would then flip to my 2nd
window, and make another bid of like 13,500 at 2 seconds. The reason I would bid
13,500 is that it is the increment, 300, plus
someone else's newbie bid of 300, plus the 2k max over the minimum
increment. So 10,900 plus 300 plus 300 plus 2000 is 13,500. Yes, I
know, you have to add fast. =) And unless there is a sniper out
there, I will win.
item B, value 17,000, increment 300
This auction is closed, you cannot place any more bids!
Me 13,500np
bidderN 11,200np
Me 10,900np
bidderN 10,600np
bidderE 10,300np
bidderU 10,000np
Here, bidderN made a newbie bid, and my other bid covered it, so I win. They may have made a different bid, maybe 12,000np or something, either way, as long as it wasn't more than 2k over the increment, your 2k over the increment would win it.
Sometimes no one will bid, like no one is watching, but usually someone will bid if there is profit to be made. If that happens, your second bid will cover it. You have to count down in your head, the first bid at like 6 seconds, and the next at 2 seconds, even though you are unsure if anyone bid or not. If you see the "you are not allowed to bid 2 times in a row", chances are you just won. If you see the "bid successful", then someone beat your first bid, and you may or may not have won. A sniper could come in having a bid a split second after you, so you never know.
This is also helpful when neopets is being laggy. You want to make sure you have a bid in, cause if it's lagging for you, it's lagging for everyone. They may have wanted to bid, but since it was lagging, they never got their bid in, and your early bid was the only one to make it.
A lot of times, people are afraid to go 2k over the minimum increment (me included). I mean if you go more than 2k higher than the max, expecting someone to bid, but no one else bid, your bid is too high. You just lost cause people you expected to bid didn't bid, and you bid too much?! That's like the worst feeling in auctions. Bidding too much.
Say you expected someone to bid 12,000 in the last one, so you bid 14,000. But what if no one bid, and you bid 14,000? You get the "You cannot bid more than 2,000 Neopoints more than the current asking price. This is to stop people rigging the auctions :) ". Terrible.
Anyway, that's where the Follow Up bid comes in (in this example, 13,500). If you're good, you can use a third window and bid above that, maybe like 15,500. You may be wondering why I would bid so high, like I'm cutting into my profit margin. That is true, but like I said, if you bid low and lose, your profit is 0. If you bid higher than you need to, but win, at least you win.
Pros:
You might win it for just a Newbie bid, or in the 2nd one. You could
snipe, hoping someone else bids, but you might get that 2k over and lose it.
Cons:
Someone else could be doing the same thing, and go 2k over their bid, and you
will lose. Also, vulnerable to snipers cause if they snipe even a little,
you will lose.