If you still can't win at auction
There could be a number of reasons why you aren't winning. Immediately, speed comes to mind. You aren't fast enough, so you are making your bid based on the last bid at around 6-7 seconds, not 4-5 seconds like you should. Therefore your bid is too low, and others outbid you.
Either that or you are afraid to lose. It's free to lose, and you will lose tons. Don't worry about it. What I mean by afraid to lose is that you don't want to bid 3k, or 5k or 6k over the minimum increment for big auctions. Say it's worth 50k, and the last bid at 5 seconds you see is at 21k. You don't "see" anyone bidding 23k, so you bid 23k to be "safe". You don't wanna go over the 2k limit, so you "play it safe".
I bet you're losing a lot if you do that. Someone is going to bid 23k, trust me. Trust me. You gotta go over that to win, maybe 25k, maybe even 27k. You won't see the bid, but you have to trust the fact that it will be there. You won't win them all, but you will win more by doing that than just "bidding the minimum". No fear. Bid more than 2k over, even if you don't see the bid.
Also, you could be bidding too early.
By bidding too early, that means seeing the bid at 4-5 seconds, but switching windows, or typing in a bid and hitting enter. You don't want to do that. You want to count down in your head and bid at like 1.5 - 2 seconds. That gives time for other people to make their bids at 2-4 seconds, and you to enter in the final number over all of that.
I have bid too early many times, getting the error that I "bid more than 2k over the last bid", but when I check, that bid would have won. It's just I bid too early. When people get excited, they tend to speak fast, move fast, and in the case of auctions, bid fast. Relax. Wait till 1.5-2 seconds, then bid. Don't bid at 3 seconds, you will lose. It will either be too high, or someone will outbid you.
What I mean by people outbidding you if you bid at 3 seconds, is that some people do the newbie method at like 2 seconds left. They see the bid at 3 seconds and do a newbie bid. Those people with really fast computers just refresh till 2 seconds and do a newbie bid. That's why you need to be a sniper and bid over all of that. And bid at 1.5 -2 seconds. That way, by the time your bid processes at 1 second, it's too late for those "newbie bid people" to have refreshed, seen your bid, and entered newbie bid over yours. You bid so late that they don't have the time.
Speaking of bidding too early, you could be bidding too many times. Any bid made before 6 seconds in a good auction is useless. Someone else will bid over that, so you are just jacking up the price for everyone. Some people want to be on top in the auction, like they feel the more times they bid, the more it will scare off other bidders.
Kind of like marking their territory. THEY want to be on top. They keep outbidding people. Don't be one of those people. You are just jacking up the price for the winner, and it's distracting too. You are spending too much time bidding it up, that you aren't thinking to yourself "what am I going to bid, based on how bad neopets is lagging, how many people are bidding it up, what time of day is it, how much is it worth, what's the increment, what method should I use, etc.".
Don't spend a lot of your energy being "on top" with more than 6 seconds left. There is absolutely no point. You win nothing being on top for "most" of the auction. You only get money if you are the last bidder. Period.
If you are bidding too late, you will know it. You just won't get a bid in. That could be a problem too.
You could be unsure of your bid. In your head, you should know what you are going to bid. That way when it comes time to bid, you aren't "thinking". You shouldn't be thinking of what to bid when it's time. You should know. If you have to think, you will debate yourself, wonder what would be the "best" bid to make. By that point, you could be typing, then maybe deleting those numbers, and typing new numbers. No. You will lose. You don't have time for that. Be confident of your number and enter it.
If your computer just isn't fast enough, I would suggest buying a new computer and/or upgrading your internet connection speed. I'm serious. If you spend like 6 hours a day on neopets, it's totally worth it. I will not teach you how to win auctions with a slow computer on dial up. I suppose you could see the bid at 9 seconds, type in a bid and hope for the best . . . but seriously, get a new computer and upgrade your speed.
If you spend that much time on neopets, seriously, what's a thousand dollars?
Let's try do a few practice screens. I won't say anything, but if you saw this, what would you bid, think in your mind. These are actual auctions that I may or may not have won. What would you have bid? The top picture is with a few seconds left, the bottom picture is the result. These are big "sniper city auctions". For small ones, just follow my methods and you should be fine.
If you haven't learned exactly what to bid in "sniper city auctions" from these 9 examples, that's the point. It's supposed to show you that there is no one way to win an auction. No amount to bid that is "perfect". In other words, you will lose a lot. Get over it. It's free to lose, but when you do win, you will make a ton.
I hope I helped solve your "losing auctions" problem. Remember, I only win about 1/3 to 1/2 of the "small" auctions (under 10k profit), and only about 10% of the "big" ones, like 50k or more profit. You aren't expected to win every auction, or even 50% of them. However, if you can only win the "small" ones, or if you only win like 5% of all auctions, even after a lot of practice, you are probably doing something wrong.
Re-read the auctions section over, then practice, and repeat until you "get it". If not, back to games for you.