[Curly Cut]

well, many ways to go about it.
you can use a free online snipe program (there are a few out there), like Hammersnipe.com. with hammersnipe's free account, you get 3 free auctions to bid on per week. also, it'll place your bid for you with 20-45 seconds left. not exactly the best time to leave on the clock, as you can be re-sniped by someone else watching it live.

i have started to use a standard wristwatch w/ seconds hand, two browsers open at the same time.
1 browser i just hit the blue "refresh" button next to the price, time that up with my wristwatch and figure out the exact second that the auction ends.
2nd browser is open with my MAX BID already in place, just need to hit the "confirm bid" button.

once the timer is down to 5 seconds, i hit "confirm bid"... if someone already has a max bid in higher than mine, i am fine with that cuz it was more than i wanted to pay.

there are some tips that most ebayers use, like NOT bidding until the last 5 seconds in hopes of keeping the price low.

i sniped all 4 of those today by hand (without a wristwatch, mine broke last week).

if you were talking about finding what you're looking for, there's always advanced searches in the Pipes section on ebay. if you're sick of seeing all those damn hooka's, then next time you're searching, put a dash/negative symbol before the word(s): -hooka, -hookah, -shisha
that'll exclude them from your search results.
if you want to search for unsmoked or new briar pipes but half are hooka, type something like: unsmoked, -hooka, -hookah, -shisha, -meerschaum
it really trims down the crap you look for.

if you're lookin for tins, they actually have an area that is seldom used especially for "tins" (most of those are old empty ones). sometimes you'll see a full/sealed tin in there that some ppl won't.