I believe my strategy is a rational and ethical response to the irrational behavior of others:
I do searches and bookmark items that are interesting. I have different folders for items that I have bid on, items that I may bid on, and items I'm just curious about how much they sell for.
For items that I don't have a passionate desire for, I wait until the last convenient time before the sale and put in a single low bid. If I don't get it, too bad. If I do, it gives me a great greed rush (this is the larceny at heart part.) Trust me, even if you bid unreasonably low, you can easily fill up your basement over a year or so.
For items that I really want and are over say $75, I wait until the last possible minute, and then put in the highest bid that I would be happy paying. For best results, wait for the last 30 seconds, as others know this trick too. As long as there isn't time for others to see your bid and raise theirs, it forces everybody into a virtual sealed bid, which avoids bidding wars. It is true that this is gaming the serious bidders who gave into their larceny of the heart and didn't bid as high as they really wanted to go. However, after it happens a few times, they'll start to think harder about their true value on the item.
In case this isn't entirely clear, the point behind bidding late is that is long as the lead bidder thinks they are winning, they will just be sitting around having warm fantasies about how great their purchase is going to be, and not coming up with rationalizations about why it is worth more than their current bid. When any bidder is kicked out of the lead, it is natural to think of raising the bid, and the more time the bidder has to think up reasons about how badly they really want this item, and how it can fit into their budget, the higher they will rebid. If you keep your value secret by not bidding till the very end, then competing bidders don't have time to rationalize a higher rebid.