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Jon Elson

wrote:
Today I watched auctions and bid on auctions for mill accessories.

a) I bid $1250, the winner bid $1275
b) I bid $10, the winner bid $10.50
c) I bid $20, the winner bid $52
d) I bid $100, the winner bid $107
e) I bid $255, the winner bid $260
f) I bid $30, the winner bid $31
g) I bid $10, the winner bid $36
h) I bid $10, the winner bid $11
i) I bid $66, the looser bid $47.98, causing me to pay $48.99

In all 9 auctions, I was the first to bid, or bid several multiples of
the existing high bid.

Most watched auctions end without any bids.

So why in all cases does another bidder appear if I bid?

Could it be the seller has another identity to shill up the price?
Well, if he does, then he's paying eBay a lot of
fees to list and sell stuff back to HIMSELF. That
isn't much of a game, is it? Sniping is a big
game, and quite annoying, there must be some guys
who get a real hoot out of doing it. But, I
believe that there are real bidders doing most of
this sniping. There are programs you can buy that
will sit on your computer and do the sniping
automatically for you, always with just a couple
seconds to go. On a few items that I really
wanted, I've actually done it myself (manually)
and sometimes it works. Sometimes my fingers or
the net are too slow, and I get the last bid in
too late.

Jon