I'm leaving this thread and any references up. Although I understand that there are lots of opinions on the subject, until ebay does something to shut down electronic sniping, it's going to be done and by not coming out against it they have made it acceptable. I've sniped on items (although I do it the old fashioned way and wait until the last few seconds to bid without the aid of electronic tools) and I have been sniped on.......heck I even had someone send me a rather hateful email because they were pissed I bid in the final 10 seconds of the auction (which I promptly ignored, he was a newbie so he would learn soon enough that this is common practice).
From one of the ebay help pages:
Last-minute bidding
Placing a high bid in the closing seconds of an auction-style listing is called “sniping” within the eBay Community. Sniping is part of the eBay experience, and all bids placed before a listing ends are valid - even if they're placed one second before the listing ends.
To help avoid disappointment, ensure that the maximum bid you enter on the item page is the highest price that you're willing to pay. The eBay bidding system automatically increases your bid up to the maximum price you specify, so entering a higher maximum may help prevent you from being outbid in the closing seconds of a listing.
Tip: Did you know that during the last 15 minutes of a listing a “Refresh” link will appear on the item page? When seconds count, using this link will make it much faster for you to see the most important information at the top of the page: current bid price, bid history, time left, and high bidder. Reference
Ergo, they practically encourage the practice of sniping. On another page (
Reference near the bottom of the page) of their help section it specifically says they do not investigate bid sniping, so again, it seems they don't care. They want you to use the proxy bidding system instead to make you put in the top price you are willing to pay. If someone bids you out in the last few seconds by putting in .01 over what you wanted to pay, then that's considered your tough luck, you should have put in a higher bid. Remember, ebay takes a piece of the final value, they want the price to be driven up. They really could care less how that happens. As they put in the ebay glossary for sniping sniping, "Any bid, placed before the listing ends, is allowed on eBay."