$39 is a sizable chunk of change. I would actually try winning the auction, and if I don't then Buy It Now as a backup if I really want the dress soon. I would not buy from any China-based sellers as a lot of counterfeit come out of China.
The trick to winning an auction comes down to the last minute and knowing who might also be bidding on the item. On eBay's desktop website, you can see how many people are "watching" the item. Those are your potential competition for the item. You can click "watch" the item or not. But definitely block off some time tomorrow night and set an alarm for about 10 minutes before the auction is scheduled to end. During those last ten minutes of the auction, log onto eBay, find the item page, refresh periodically and watch how the bidding goes, if any. At the last minute before the auction closes, see where the price is trending and if there's a bidding war going on. Decide then if you want to put in a bid, how much, and place a bid within the last 20 seconds or so. This is "sniping" and usually doesn't give the other bidder(s) time to come in with another bid.
A few things to consider. If no one else bids, you'll luck out and get it for $90; if you're bidding against others, you should set your maximum bid at less than $129, which is the cost to Buy It Now plus shipping for the other item. If you decide to bid, you have to enter in how much is your max bid. eBay will always take the "minimum" bid it will take to make you the highest bidder. If you're the only bidder, that's the current auction price. If you're in a bidding war against others, other bidder(s) will have their own hidden max bid. So for example, if the auction shows the current high bid from someone else at $92, and you enter a bid with a max of $95, that may or may not be enough. The other bidder's max could be $94, in which case your $95 max bid beats it. Or the other bidder's max could be $96, in which case the moment you enter in $95, eBay will return a message that you've been outbid by the other bidder's hidden max bid and you may not have enough time left (if doing this in the last 20 seconds of an auction) to place another bid.
Bidding is a waiting game and guessing what other potential and actual bidder's are doing/going to do. Shape your own actions to catch them by surprise and limit their bidding opportunity. Good luck!
that's what I did. It's last year's dress but this year's version is $178 and she liked this print better. And I had $100 in eBay bucks which I didn't know what to do with so it worked out perfectly!
