I recently sold a lot of my film camera gear on ebay and thought about having a friend bid my items up, but there was no need. If you are selling an item with a reasonably sized "market" they won't let you sell your things for less than they are worth. These people should have more faith in the ebay system.

I think buying on ebay is easy. If you lurk a lot, you can find good "buy it now" prices from people who are trying to unload stuff fast. Similarly, if you know how much you are truly willing to spend on an item, bidding can be easy and worry free. Too many people search around and say, "Hey, I'd pay 3 dollars for that carbon frameset" but really aren't willing to commit to paying +-15% of the value of the frame. Thus, items which have many bids and appear to be in heated bidding wars are really about 95% people bumping things up $1 until the price is out of their extremely low spending limit.

One last thing. Too many buyers can be just as desperate as sellers. They run into some extra cash, hit ebay, and expect to get mad deals. You should always have an idea of the next item/s you'd like to purchase as well as various prices it may cost at your LBS or online vendors. Lurk CL and ebay for some time and watch similar items to see how most auctions really end. People have this idea of ebay where it is a magical land where the basic laws of economics are broken and a major majority of sales are ZOMG DEALZ!!! Do some research, be patient, and don't be surprised if you have to bid on a half dozen items before you win one.