eBay sniping

At 18:23 24/04/2003, you wrote: I dispute that - the "extension" idea is what happens in a "normal" auction. The auctioneer will take bids until all competing bidders back out, leaving the one winner. This, naturally, maximises the sale price (which is good for the seller & the auction house). As for sniping itself, I personally have no real problem with it (and do it myself, frequently). It's also interesting (from a psychological POV) as a seller: I sell very little on eBay, but I find myself watching my own auction(s) coming to a close & wondering how many snipe bids there'll be... Personally, I'd like to see eBay introduce the *option* of self-extending auctions, which continue past their deadline until 5 mins (for example) after the last bid is placed. That way, as a seller, I get to choose whether I want sniper bids or not. It's entirely possible that an extending auction will /reduce/ the final sale price (since people are less likely to get completely carried away with a top bid); but for popular items I suspect the reverse is true, since more people are likely to bid for longer right at the end. Uninteresting (probably) collarary: I recenly won two Sinclair Cambridge Programmable calcs, both in excellent condition, one of them in the original (and remarkably un-battered) box c/w instructions, etc. Normally, tatty un-boxed examples of these machines go for around £45 each. I got both for £25.01. Chuffed, I was. However, the usual last second malarkey was going on, and I'd only bid £25 at the start, fully expecting the price to hit about £50-£60 or so before the last-second rush. Obviously, though, the professional snipers were away that day, since there were only a few bids upping the price towards my £25 limit. When it hit £24, though, I panicked & bid again (with 2 seconds to spare), thus raising the price over my own bid by 1 pence... Duh! -- Cheers, Ade. Be where it's at, B-Racing! http://b-racing.com