I snipe all the time. I have the eBay app on my iPhone with push notification. It's the "Barrett .50 caliber" of eBay sniping. My view is purly from a sellers perspective. I have gotten emails from people on items who said that they would purchase it for more if the buyer flakes out. That individual would have bid more if he had time to retaliate if given the chance. What said person should have done is put in the max amount they were willing to bid instead of just the small amount over the previous bidder. That goes on a lot on eBay. Hope that clears things up. You know what would be cool for sellers? If there was a last second bid, the time would extend a small amount like 5 minutes or so. That would allow the last miniute bidding war a chance to continue.
Although for buyers hoping to get it at a bargain that would suck.

This is precisely it:

If you're sniping or placing a bid with plenty of time to spare, the only thing you should ever do is simply bid the maximum amount you would be willing to pay for the item. So yes, even if you're outbid by pennies, you have to set the limit for yourself. Don't get caught up in "bid-upsmanship." "I'm willing to pay $50.00 for that item and not a cent more. If it goes for $51.00 then oh well, that was too expensive for me."

Besides, even if the final price is only a dollar or so more than your maximum price, you have no way of knowing what that final bidder put as -their- maximum price. They might have put in $60, $70, or even $100. So suddenly that "just a dollar or two more" is "$50 more if I want to win."

If you want it THAT BAD then you're simply going to have to place a ludicrously high bid (I'd say about twice what you'd normally think it would go for). That's basically the name of the game: "How bad do you want it?"

I think most people do it but it can really kick you in the teeth when you forget the close time. Plus half the time it might not close at the number you want anyway, meaning you wasted your time.

If you don't snipe, you do risk turning things into a bidding war where you quickly outprice yourself or are forced to pay far more.

see below

Perfect reply. If they wanted to bid they should have been online at auctions end. They also should have placed a higher bid. I loose/ don't win auctions all the time by pennies to dollars above my max price. I'm trying to get things as cheap as I can.

I agree with everything except the extention of the auction. They already have a penultamate bid that can be placed at the end of an auction. Extending the auctions would raise prices for sellars but eBay needs to reduce the 10% final sales fee because the sellars are just taking it out on buyers with shipping. Not all but some. Def not saying you Xcaliber. :)

All i do is snipe unless its a bin auction. I watch for days and if its not above what i would pay for it in the last 20sec i put up my max bid up sometimes win sometimes lose but im not gonna raise the price in a bidding war four days before it ends just to get sniped by someone else

Using a sniping service is often the only way I'll remember to bid in the last time in the first place. I've been using them for years, and in the past it would be a 50/50 shot that I would remember to snipe or not at the last minute, so I love those programs. I know it bites me in the butt sometimes because when I'm selling I become victim to selling my item for less due to sniping, but the amount I've saved as a buyer avoiding bid wars greatly outweighs it.

I will never understand people who complain about being sniped.

If you get out bid, if you actually put in the maximum you were willing to pay, then you shouldn't feel burned by it.

Now I'm not saying I haven't been the one who wished they'd bid just a little more, I'm just saying that if you really are out bid then it shouldn't matter when it happened.

Maybe this is evidence of a problem in the way ebay works since some people just have no idea why it's better to wait until the last minute to bid while those of us who have been using ebay for years don't bid any other way.

I have noticed that. Some people will bid on an auction right away. Sometimes it's to inactivate the BIN feature. But I've noticed people who bid first often get out bid when the bidding only goes up a dollar more. Why bid if your not going put up your max bid? I do not see a point to bid untill the auction is almost over. It's so funny to see an auction slowly go up in the last few hours. Especially when you know multiple people are watching it. it's like Rexplode said if the bidding is close to what I would pay close to the end of the auction, I will bid. BIN is also a great way to get what you want sometimes cheaper.

Never had a problem with sniping on eBay auctions. I've done it in the past and I've been sniped plenty of times. I can understand why some people get upset about it, but I don't think it's something to lose sleep over. It's the nature of the beast.

I remember one time about a year after I signed up on eBay, I had sniped an auction without knowing that's what I was doing. All I knew was someone was trying to outbid me in very small increments during the last 10 minutes of the auction. Her bids were always 50 cents or $1.00 more than what I bid.

Others had done this to me in the past and I was determined not to let it happen on this auction. So I fought my first bid war and won. Then I got a nasty email from her actual email address (not through eBay) and apparently signed it with her real name. She informed me that it wasn't proper eBay etiquette to snipe a bid. Clueless, I did some quick Google searches and then replied, "Sorry you feel that way. Better luck next time." Never heard from her again. Didn't even get a negative feedback or anything.


C'est la vie.

Sniping is wrong and should be outlawed.

Auctions should end after I've placed my first low ball bid so that I can always get super good deals off eBay.

Just kidding, but seriously... under what circumstances is it not okay to snipe for those of you that consider it to be wrong?