But this is a mistake. You never bid a initial bid, because someone else will see that bid then bid higher to cover your bid plus more in case you come back and rebid, and they will do this late in the game. The only bid you ever make is the max your willing to spend and at the last 10 seconds of the bidding. If you had waited the other guy that tried to beat you would have perhaps bidded less, you could have won anyways but paid less.

Also bid odd amounts; for example, the bid is $1500, you're willing to pay up to $2,000, so you bid $2,011; most people bid even amounts, so someone else may have done $2,010 thinking their over someone else doing a $2,000 even bid. But if someone bids a stiff initial bid of say $1500, like what you did, others see that bid and wait till the last few seconds to place a bid and they may place a bid just over your amount, and if you don't have the time to counter bid your screwed. Also by bidding with only a few seconds late you also don't get trapped in a bidding frenzy that most get trapped into doing and end up paying more then they wanted and probably more then the item is worth.

You probably ended up paying more then you could have paid if you had ignored the initial stiff bid and instead used that bid at the last 10 seconds.

I hope this made sense?