Thanks for the welcomes. Puppy, that's pretty much what I did the first time, but since I had sort of set myself up for it, I couldn't really complain much. It was the second appearance of the same item, and I mentioned to the seller that I had been outbid the first time... The new "opening" bid was about five dollars over my max in the previous auction. I sometimes tend to forget that sellers are business-people, not just fellow collectors eager to share!
And it's hard to know sometimes, when a relatively rare plant comes on the market, what the demand is going to be or how fast the seller will respond to questions. I hate to wait, and there's always the hope that no one else will be very interested. After all, how many bidders CAN there be out there who think that a variegated adenium obesum that FLOWERS is incredibly cool...? (Answer: more than you might expect!)