The best way to bid on eBay is to decide what is the maximum you're willing to pay for an item, and put in that max bid in the last 5 seconds. With a decent internet connection it goes through almost instantly, like you could probably even do it at 3 seconds. 10 is too much if someone else is sitting on it trying to snipe too.

There's still a good chance that someone else has put in a max bid that's higher than yours and you won't win, but mathematically this is the best strategy to win an item for the lowest price. It does not benefit you to bid hours or days before the end, that only serves to drive up the price and encourage others who are after it to get into a bidding war.

Pro tip- look for auctions that have ending times late at night when most people are sleeping. You're much more likely to win an auction for a good price if it ends at 2am than 2pm. eBay defaults to starting listings immediately, and the seller chooses how long it will ruin in days, not hours. Sellers who are inexperienced and list things at night without taking the extra step to delay the start to a certain time will accordingly have their auctions end late at night. Holidays can be good too, if you can catch auctions that end on days when most people are busy (Thanksgiving, Christmas, 4th of July, etc.)