In article , Dave Hinz says...

People who are sniping are doing it so they can outbid the guy with the
top bid, at the last minute, so nobody else can do the same thing to
them that they're doing to others. Like I said before, obviously those
who use it are OK with that. I know it's going to happen, but I'm not
going to let a claim that it's not done for exactly that reason go
unchallenged.

Dave, consider 'sniping' as such (putting ones maximum bid
in at the last second or two) to be the moral equivalent of a
sealed-bid auction.

Everyone decides what they want to pay for an item, tops.
Each writes that number on a slip of paper, and the slips
go in a hat.

At the end of the auction, the bid with the largest number is
accepted.

Of course, there are minimums, and reserves. Plus you have folks
who do indeed bid up during the auction.

But ebay has decided that those are the rules of their game,
and eveyone follows them. There are other auction houses online,
and real, live auctions, that extend bidding times once that
'one last bid' shows up, so folks have the chance to trump it.

If sellers really felt that ebay were screwing them out of
money, they would sell some other way. I like ebay's rules
as they are now, and would not bid in online auctions unless
there were a set time limit. So I don't.

Jim


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