Yeah, I used to buy a lot more on Ebay; not much now. I am a long-time buyer, never a seller.
For searches, I have long used the 'minus' filter, useful on both Craigslist and Ebay. I have a long search expression somewhere which I copy and paste into the search bar, which eliminates most of the crap. Say I am searching for vintage Campagnolo and want to filter out the keyword spamming floatsam, it starts out like:
Campagnolo -Schwinn -huffy -murray -kickstand -single -fixed -accessories -helmet ...
Etc. Craiglist is far worse for keyword spamming. It takes constant flagging to keep this down.
I only buy auction listings... never Buy it Now. I never buy stuff from the U.S. under the: 'Global Shipping Program', which features absurd shipping charges that are multiples of real USPS shipping rates. And the Global Shipping Program tacks on random extortionist fees such as: 'Import Charges'. Whatever that is... Cross-border shipping is largely duty free.
Since I only buy through auctions, I never bid until the last second - obviously. No point to get into a bidding war with an irrational new Ebayer, or worse, a shill bidder.
In the last 10 or so auctions I bid on, I have bid on the same item with the same seller. The initial listed price was $90. I bid $99.99. Before the auction close, someone bid $100 even, and won the auction. Weird thing is, is that this other bidder only bids on items from the same seller. Shortly after, I received an email from the seller indicating that the 'winning' bidder could not 'complete the transaction', or some such nonsense, and I could have the item for $99.99. Second chance offer. I obviously let this expire.
A few days later, the item was reposted.. and we went through the same saga. I bid just under $100, and lost the auction to the same shill bidder. We did this silly dance 10 times before the seller just let me have the item for $90.