Sniping is the act of entering a bid in the last few seconds of an auction. Usually this will prevent any competitors from reading that bid and entering another higher bid before time runs out. There is at least one outfit, www.esnipe.com , that offers this service. Instead of sitting poised at your keyboard, stopwatch in hand sweating out those last 10 seconds, you can enter all pertinent info on eSnipe days ahead of time and let them do the sniping computerlaterally.

There have been a few discussions here about sniping. Those that were always "it" or had chronic dodge-ball marks on their bodies don't think it's fair and those who navigate the world with a higher degree of sophistication (and more chips!) use it regularly. Most of us rationalize sniping with the degree of chip jones we are suffering for a particular item and coinciding moon phase!