Well, I take a different approach. If there is a bottle I really want (e.g., a birth year wine, as the OP wanted), I think bidding first is a signal to a lot of people that the bottle is being competed for. Instantly removes the casual bidders. If I come in later on something, bid, and see the original bidder’s autobid beat me out, I’m more likely to give up right away. Maybe I have different buying psychology than other people, but that’s my strategy.
Michael - I don’t want to win, I want to win at my price. I’ve found that ties-in-favor-of-the-first-bidder has helped me get there. YMMV
Funny! A good friend of mine now several years ago were bidding against each other for some bottles of Guigal LaLas - we both lost 
. In the end, it turned into meeting up with the wives and sharing wine - then into a good friendship. FYI - I brought some wines that he didn’t have to pay for so he actually did win in the end not having to shell out $ for the experience . Haaaaaa
Bidding on-line is a much different experience than bidding in person or live. Sniping in your underwear is a subjective and very personal experience that I have yet to do :p!
This is generally true. However, there are many friends of mine that won’t bid against me when they see a bid entered - and I do the same with them. Sometimes getting there first is all you need (especially when the bidding is very light).
My strategy — one that admittedly works about 50% of the time — is to put in the first bid (if possible) as a deterrent, to let others know that there is a bidder who is interested and who may be willing to outbid them. Then I wait and snipe at the end.
I don’t think there is a “one size fits all” approach to bidding for wine. Some bottles are relatively obscure and they won’t get a lot of bids. Others are very well known and you know it’s likely to get a lot of bids. Since there are few absolutely “have to have” bottles for me, it takes a lot of the pressure off re: bidding strategy.
Bruce
And then there are bottles of Nacional Porto that are clearly misidentified and have opening bids under $100. Those apparently are popular with some bidders! 
Exactly. And since they tend to break that many bottles up into smaller lots, it’s easy to split your strategy. Maybe you think bidding on all of them @$25ea. would be great, but would only want few at higher prices. So, bid minimum on some lots and more on others.
Also, autobid is very helpful. If someone outbids your $25 bid by one step and you have time, you still have to come back with a $35 bid. If you had a $30 autobid in place, you’d still win. It’s a good defensive position, since you can force anyone tying to outbid you to pay more than you are willing to.
The other thing to remember is these auctions are weekly. No need to go crazy when in most cases the same or similar wines will show up again and again…
If it is any consolation, I recently had a 1977 BV Rutheford Cabernet. While decent, it was certainly past its prime.
My recommendation when bidding is to wait until the last few minutes until bidding and never place an early bid. A few weeks ago, two bidders spent seven days in a bidding war over some 1981 Ridge Angeli. 1981 Ridge Red Wine, Zinfandel | WineBid By the time the auction finished, the two $25 bottles went for $58 each. If you wait until the last few minutes, you’ll have a better chance of winning and winning at a good price.
I’m not sure that’s correct Jay. If there are multiple bottles available, you don’t have to bid on the entire lot. So if someone bid and opening bid of $80 on 2 of them against an opening bid of $20, then they would have a bid of $20 on those 2 and the other 14 would still be uncontested and take a $20 bid. I think in the case of the auction brought up by the OP, the other person wanted all 16 of them and put in the higher bid on them all.
Yep. +1.
I think a lot also depends on the opening price. If the opening price plus the juice is around or just under fair value and the bottle is not too rare, usually the opening bid wins. My guess others, just like me, think another one will be posted soon and will get for same price.
As been noted, lots of different strategies based on quantity available, rarity, and opening price.
What I think is always funny is how a wine will not sell the previous week for $15 bucks and the next week it will go down to $10 and the winning bid will be something like $18. Now its possible that some people dont check on a weekly basis and they may not have known it was $15 the week before, but it you wanted it so bad why didnt you just pick it up at $15 when noone else bid!
Nate, that’s true, I see it often. OTOH, a few years ago there was a wine I really liked, definitely off the beaten track. Someone put a case of it up for sale. I watched that wine start at $30 or so with no action, then drop over several weeks to $15. I bought a few bottles, then watched it drop again to $10 and bought the rest As a seller as well, this hurts, but it’s the market.
I like this approach.
Oh i totally agree and frankly I do the same thing particularly if its not something that I really want but something that is a smaller want. I am happy to just watch it over time and if I get it at the lower price great but I definitely keep myself from bidding higher then the price from the previous week.
Well… Tonight I had it happen to me once again, and once again I guess I had it comin.
A while back I bought 3 bottles (of 6 listed) of 2006 Detert Cab Franc. I finally had a chance to pop a bottle this last Friday night at a restaurant in Venice with friends. It was a phenomenal bottle of wine. Frankly, it’s my Wine of the Year. I knew the other 3 were still available on winebid so I put bids in on the other 3 thinking I would snap them up, especially since they’ve been there for several weeks with NO action, except by me.
Well, someone sniped 2 of the 3 from me with three minutes left tonight. I still got one, and an '04 that was also available… But I’m an idiot for not watching at the close of auction to try and get all three of these remaining gems.
Cheers!
If you’re wiling to bid up, why not autobid? That can save you $5 per bottle, too.
The only way to avoid snipers, and not have to sit by your computer when the auction finishes, is to put in your best and highest bid. If you are outbid, you are outbid, it doesn’t matter whether it is days or seconds before the auction closes.
On the other hand, I am not always that logical, and as most auctions close Sunday night and my wife is watching The Good Wife (I can’t stand Margolies) I am happy to snipe the occasional bottle.
Much more expensive than waiting until last minute and not having anyone bid you up. I’m the OP and after getting burned, I track until 9:55p and then make my bids. I only bid early if I don’t care if I get it or not and am basically praying for someone to outbid me…