Finally... a use for German

If you live in Ireland or the UK, rather than just using eBay.com or eBay.ie/co.uk, put those German classes to use and use eBay.de
Sure, it'll take a little effort on your part, but I've found serious bargains there and much less bidding wars, particularly in photographic equipment.

Also, a handy little tool is JBidWatcher. It snipes for you when you're tucked up in bed/out having life. Find it at Sourceforge. Sure, there are other bidding tools out there, but this one is open source, something which is dear to my heart.