Throughout our tutorials, we have stressed again and again the need for you to know what the market value of the item is before you bid on it. Flying blind on values is a sure way to crash and burn on bargains.

Fortunately, there are a few techniques you can use to prepare yourself for bidding. Guidebooks, which specialize in a type of items, stamps for example, will list values and conditions. These books can be purchased online at Amazon.com, and typically they are inexpensive. For example, the most current Kelly Blue Book, the industry standard for car values, costs under $10. Going to a used car auction without one would be nuts.

Comparison-shopping is also a great way to determine market values for items. If you see something you like, look it up on the Internet. Use eBay, Amazon.com and comparison-shopping sites like www.shopzilla.com to see if you can find a similar item you are interested in bidding on.

Going out to the malls and big retailers like Walmart, Costco and others is another way to check for values. These brick and mortar companies do an excellent job of buying and they keep their profit margins low, sometimes providing a better bargain than you will find online.

Another way to see values it to follow auctions for a while. This is less accurate than some of the other methods because people can overbid for items, but if you watch a number of auctions, an average selling price becomes obvious and you could use that as a guide too.

Ebay provides an excellent Market Research service, which allows you to check on average selling prices for items that are in their system. This is reasonably priced, so if you are an active auction bidder, it can really come in handy.