The trick with this game is knowing when to sacrifice a lot of your chips. Look at the cards beforehand and decide if they're really worth spending a lot chips. Because remember that if you pass you get half your chips back, therefore getting a much better price than the person who wins.

Remember what people have and what they've played already.

Do realize there are many strategies in this game. One of the strategies is when you bid then wait for it to build up, let people pass, then end the bid. Thus you hand over only HALF of the coins you spent and got a good property.

Another consideration is turn order. Since the winning bid goes first, one strategy is to bid high early to secure the first bid(s) in the following hand(s). A high 1st bid may discourage others, but can result in you overpaying when nobody follows your initial bid.