A last minute auction is, strictly speaking, an auction that sells off items set up for auction that have been previously ignored in favor of other, supposedly more interesting items. This is not to say that the items sold at a last minute auction are not interesting at all; it may just very well be that the items that were more successfully auctioned off are better marketed, or have some value that is a little more desirable, such as historic value and the like. That being said, the last minute auction is an ideal arena for the concept of last minute purchase in the sense that it incorporates both the ideas of urgency and strategy. The items being sold at a last minute auction are items that are within the last hour of their bidding time and, given this, the bidding prices start out very low in order to generate interest in these specific items. This being the case, you would have to understand that competition for these items – especially if they happen to be very useful or are quite fascinating and important (only the regular price happens to be steep) – and you would need to be able to outsmart the bargain bidders by bidding faster than they could without spending too much.
This section of the site is dedicated to strategies that one needs to employ in a last minute auction.