Figuring out bidding strategy at eBay took me a few days. I opened my bid on this 19-year-old instrument on about the second day it had been listed, meaning there were five more days for someone to outbid me, and that’s what happened. But I noticed with other items that bids kept coming till the last possible moment before the auction closed, so I kept an eye on it. Today it got to the point where there were fifteen minutes left on the clock and the highest bid was still well within my range, so I put in a new maximum bid. I beat the other bidders by about $1.50; apparently they hadn’t set maximum bids which would automatically be incremented if new bids were placed.

Now I have to get a book which will show and tell me how to play dulcimer.