Winning penny auctions and successfully netting a profit considers one part skill and one part luck. Perhaps the most important part of a bidder’s strategy is patience. You should know at what average price items usually sell for and base your bidding strategy around that average. This is the price that you should start bidding at, even if this means you will pass auctions by that you could have easily won without a single bid.

Why is this? Well, there’s no way to know at what exact price the item in question will go for. By studying averages, you can get a good idea, but there is no way to nail down the exact number at which it will sell. By playing the averages you will win still lose many auctions, but because early bidders are less prone to bid past these average prices, you have a better chance of winning the auction. On extremely popular items, you might even want to wait longer than this because others will likely be attempting the same strategy. The important thing to remember is that you want to win the item for as few bids as possible. If this means that you pass by auctions where there is a strong chance that you will use many bids just to contend, you are wasting bids.

There will always be more auctions for you to bid upon. Missing an auction here or there because you are attempting to use your bids selectively is not a bad strategy, and will help you increase your profit ratio on the items you do win.