Well, if there's a buy price and you're in a fierce war, put the bid price 1 crown below the buy price, and watch him spam click past the buy price.

Take him down with you.

Well, dangerous is m-

/e was killed in a giant explosion.

Fun fact: that aura was mine. Glad someone B/Oed it.

Reto-Da-Liz cheers. Hooray!

Sorry but I needed that aura.

Nothin personal :x

Wasn't the Fall Leafy Aura on the depot for 8kE-ish? That's roughly 640k. I would never expect to win it with a 400k bid while there were others bidding. One can get lucky but I wouldn't be upset if I lost.

If you really want something and the price is reasonable, just b/o it. If it's not, bid as high as you value the item and a little more. That way if you get sniped and lose, you won't feel bad.

Buy Now!

No really, why would I even bother buying something if I didn't want it bad enough to pay full price? It helps a seller, saves me time, and leads any others in a bid war to defeat. (Ok, so that part is a bit cruel).

Of course, there are some items I'd rather not buy from the Auction House. If it's simple to craft, earnable, or cheaper from the Supply Depot or other location, avoid it. I will also be sure to avoid over priced things. Unless I really, REALLY want it, I won't go anywhere above 600,000 crowns. Most things the get past this rule for me are super rare items or PvP items that I can't go through to get. Not to mention I don't have infinite money. As a matter of fact I am super poor at the moment. The next time I get some energy I may first find another use for it besides the Auction House.

Bidding on items usually falls down on luck. You could spend millions of crowns on that one Hacked Aura or Black Kat Cowl, but you know at least 30 other people will do the same thing. Most of them are willing to go higher. It's a risk that may not be worth taking for your hearts sake alone.

So in a nutshell, get the money or get lucky.

Don't bid. Just buy, or wait until the other guy is offline. Otherwise don't even start it at all.

Don't bid right after they do. Count to 5 then do it. It'll aggravate the crap out of them every time they start to walk away and have to turn right back to out bid you. Eventually they'll give up.

While the merchants bring up a good point about your expectations, there is a real issue with the auction house.

If I'm bidding on an item with no buyout, chances are the item will end in the middle of the night or when I'm offline. This means that I won't get to participate in the bidding war that would ensue when the item is actually sold to whomever is awake at 2 am- it hurts the seller because their items are sold to a smaller audience- implying less demand. It hurts the buyers because its next to impossible to win these bidding wars without staying up all night.

Don't be a turd and wait for the last one minute to place a bid: if you do and you get outbidded, don't wait till there's one minute left to do it again, that is outright the most annoying thing ever.

___

Saying that just gives people incentive to do it just to annoy you.

*evil grin*

In my time in the AH, I've discovered there are three ways to win in Bids. I've classified them in certain terms that are easy to remember, and suit their purposes quite well.

1: The Defender strategy
The defender strategy is simple, stay as the one bidding for the item. If someone outbids you, try to outbid them fairly quickly. You don't want them to have the bid, but you don't want the price to raise too much. Either do it immediately and wait for them to tire out (if they keep outbidding you), or wait ~10-25 seconds Max.
Good things about this strategy: It keeps you as the top bidder, and as long as you're attentive to the bid itself you won't end up losing due to time.
Bad things about this strategy: If the bid war goes on for a long time the price will increase (by quite a bit in some cases). If you get distracted you may lose the defender position and lose the bid (I'm talking about bids ending at 2:00AM, which are just a pain to win if you're not in the right time zone). You're gonna have to stand in front of the AH and/or monitor your bid regularly, especially when it reaches 1-3 pages from "Shortest Time".

2: The Rich Guy strategy
Raise the bid even though you don't have to. This serves as a threat of sorts among bid wars, and can usually weed out people who just want it because they can get it, not because they want it. If the person outbids you despite using this strategy, then raise it again. If they outbid a second time, then decide whether to switch to the Defender strategy, or continue throwing crowns to the wind. In this strategy, you want to save as many crowns as possible by using as many crowns as you see fit (which sounds contradictory, but if the strategy works you may avoid a bid war that would raise the price above the "Rich Raise")
Good things about this strategy: It scares off cheap people who don't have sufficient crowns/aren't willing to compete. It can secure items by making them out of reach compared to other items of their kind (if the same item is in the AH, that is). It can save you a lot of effort and sometimes allows you to avoid bid wars from happening in the first place.
Bad things about this strategy: It takes up a lot of crowns in most cases. If the other person has a vast amount of crowns they could end up smacking you around with money. If the price is raised during this strategy and a bid war is still occurring the other side may just buy the item.

3: The Sniper strategy
Basically just wait a while, then hit "bid". Most effective when the item is going to expire during times when most people go Offline. If someone outbids you, wait a while depending on how much time is left for the item (I usually do ~1min -Very Short, ~5min -Short, ~30min -Medium, Bid-once-then-wait -Very Long. The reason why I only bid once on Very Long is just so I can monitor how the price is changing over time. If the price is changing a lot, then chances are there's already a bid war going on and switching to a different target may a better choice.), but you'll have to watch the item for a while to get an idea of how long you can wait for it to be gone. The key in this strategy is to catch the other person off guard and steal the win.
Good things about this strategy: If timed well, you can avoid bid wars. You use minimal crowns. You can gauge the opposing bidder's crown supply/how much they're willing to spend. You don't have to wait around the AH as long as you have a timer set up.
Bad things about this strategy: The opposing bidder may grow tired of the constant need to outbid and will just buy the item. If the opposing bidder is not letting very much time pass for you being the top bidder, you may be sitting there for a while. If you mess up in waiting, the item may just slip by without you noticing.

In summary: You can either sit as a wall and guard the bid, fend off opposing bidders with large amounts of money, or wait for the perfect time and tire out your opponent and steal the bid. The safest is probably the first, but that takes a while.

this was from the wiki

The Auction Time Thresholds are roughly equal to:
Very Short: less than 5 minutes (time is extended with every new bid)
Short: 5 minutes - 1 hour
Medium: 1 - 4 hours
Long: 4 - 24 hours
Very Long: 24+ hours

@Hexzyle
you're right, notice it says that the time is extended with every new bid when it's labeled very short. however, its unclear whether it can go above 5 minutes (to 5:59)