Most sellers charged me ~$3 for shipping, some as much as $10. The guy who charged $1 I’m not expecting tracking.
I hate that ebay does spelling correction now. That was my best strategy.
I got a 7’ x 9’ hand-braided wool rug, along with a matching 3’ x 5’ rug for less than $100 shipped. Probably $2000 worth of rugs sold at 5% of value, all because they spelled it “baided”.
Gee, I routinely check prices on new items vs Amazon. Amazon wins more often than not, but if I am willing to buy ‘slightly used’ eBay wins hands down, except on books, etc where Amazon still sells used. Even there, I can often score a better deal on eBay on a “lot’ since Amazon doesn’t have those, per se.
I’d say that it is normal. Sellers are people and sometimes people get lazy or don’t think of it or want to pay for it. It seems to be all over the place as to whether they will include tracking or not. As said, it depends on the seller.
FWIW, I hate when they don’t add tracking.
Heh the $1 shipping guy sent me a tracking number. 
It’s surprising what gets a tracking number and what doesn’t.
I’ve been having fun buying little electronic doodads from China/Hong Kong. The cheapest so far is a 99 cent adapter. Always free shipping. Always get a tracking number. Although the last one wasn’t formatted right for some reason so I couldn’t track it.
OTOH, I’ve been waiting 2+ weeks for a part from Canada with quite non-free shipping and no peep. Only been told that it was ready to ship. The delivery date range has just passed. Time to do some querying.
As to the OP: The big problem is that eBay is full of irrational people. Trying to come up with a perfect rational strategy to deal with irrational people is futile. You can only hope to limit the damage.
Note that to some extent this is intrinsic to all economic markets. If there was a perfect rational strategy we’d all use it all become rich at the expense of no one.
In addition to what has been posted, the key for me has always been looking for auctions for the same item (possibly by the same seller). Prioritize those. Bid low on the first attempt. Ramp up for later ones. Never bid more than the BIN price when there is more than one available.
(It is really weird to see how many sellers now list used things for more than current new retail. When I was shopping for my Nook HD+, I checked out the eBay situation. All of them were for more than what B&N was selling them for new. Like I said, it’s irrational.)
never autobid - if there is even a little interest in the item - you will be ‘at your max’ before its over.
I snipe manually - I put in the ‘min required’ to get it in my ‘truly interested’ pile of ebay - I ignore all ‘you’ve been outbid’ nonsense - I check in at the end of the auction and decide what I am wiling to pay - If there is a good deal of room between where it is and that - I may increase my current bid ‘in between’ - if not - I wait until the last few moments of the auciton and put in my true max.
It does no good to put in your true max at the beginning of the auciton - it only serves to drive up prices.
If I am buying new/retail stuff (rare, mostly dvds) - I only do buy it now and I watch for shipping gougers.
I’ve been pretty active for a month and another tip i can give: do your homework. Sellers are also checking the sold listings, and try to add to the sale prices. If enough of them do it, it appears as though the average price has increased, but if you wait few days, the price comes back down.
On the contrary it is commonplace. In life, vast numbers of people don’t know what to do, so they just do what other people do. So in life, on ebay. Heaps of people will form a view as to how much to pay based on what you are willing to pay. An early autobid is a big red flag saying “I think this item is worth $X”. Heaps of sheep will nibble up to your autobid max to see what is written on your big red flagand will conclude that if you think something is worth $X, they are prepared to pay $X.05.
Sniping works because it deprives others of the ability to use your market knowledge, and your indication of going market price, to set their pricepoint.
Yep. If I see an auction and a reasonably-priced “Buy It Now” for pretty much the same thing, I’m going with the latter.