They have, I think, 48 hours to consider your offer. Usually, they let you know pretty quickly, but if they have more than your offer, they may wait. You could look on the seller's Feedback to see what has been accepted for past items. Often, they sell the same items, and you can get an idea of how low they are willing to go. Always check their feedback.

Good luck!

Bidding and best offers are really two different things. When I bid, I try and do so during the last minute or so of the auction. Prior to that, I'll check the bid history. Who has bid, how many offers they've made, that sort of thing. I'll also check the sellers feedback and see what others have paid/they've accepted on similar items.

For a best offer, which I've yet to win, I simply bid the most I'm willing to pay at that point in time. If I win, great. If not, there will always be others coming up at some point in time.

Usually they get back to you very quickly, and you'll receive a "You won the Widget!" email with instructions on how to pay -- so just be sure you are really prepared to pay what you are offering. In my experience sellers will go about $50 lower than their Buy-It-Now price, although a few times I've had them accept an even lower offer. Can't hurt to try! (But yes, check their feedback first to make sure they haven't sold a bunch of broken widgets.)

As a 11 year seller on eBay, I would say offer a little lower than what your willing to go. If they don't accept it, then give them the most you will pay. Anything less than 15% would probably insult them. Or best yet, look in the completed sales and see what the item has sold for in the past (usually only goes back about 3 weeks) and offer that!

If you're serious about bidding (not best offering) then sniping is a technique that you should know about. See the link below for one site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Auction Sniper

OK, this is too much. :+ I have added soooo many links from posts in GW that my favorites tool runs clear across the screen!

Thanks Clinresga for ANOTHER great one!

Mavia, I love ebay--I used it as a primary resource in purchasing stuff for my remodel and the contractor started calling me "Little Miss Ebay."
It takes a few transactions to get a good feel for how to work it, but don't be intimidated by it.
When you are bidding, you start with whatever the opening bid is unless there is competetion for the item. On Ebay the price an item will sell for is determined by who wants it--or who wants it most. If I'm bidding on something that I don't absolutely have to have. I set my maximum bid at the best price I'd consider paying for the item, and then I just let the auction play out. On the other hand, when bidding on more unique items, where there may be more competition, I will watch the auction and try something like the "sniping" approach.
Whatever you do, be sure to know what you're getting before you bid. Buy from Sellers who have good feedback ratings, and make sure to factor in the shipping cost. (Some sellers sell cheap and gouge you on the shipping to avoid paying their ebay fees.)
Since the Kitchen Forum isn't really the best place to discuss how-to-bid-on-Ebay, feel free to e-mail me if you have any other questions that you need help with.

thanks everyone. I don't want to screw the seller but there is such a range of prices that I'd like to get a good deal. I have gotten prices from KBAuthority that were great but since others think I might great a raw deal from them, I'm still looking. I thought of offering their prices but as msgreatdeals said, I don't want to insult anyone.

Are prices better on weekends?
Thanks again for all your help.

The only bad thing about eBay is that most sellers nowadays only accept payment with Paypal. If you don't have a Paypal account set up and don't plan on using it often then I would open a new no fee checking account specifically for linking to your eBay account. Keep no funds in it and use it to link a credit card to pay for all transactions. That way you have your credit card buyers protection in case Paypal doesn't come through for you. It's happened - trust me.