I disagree with your contention that sniping increases your final price as a seller. I think that using an absolute time limited auction format encourages most to wait until the last moment to place their bids. It forces you to determine in advance how much you maximum bid will be and gives you one shot at winning. It is true that the item will go to the highest bidder so no bidder should whine about losing - but I believe it is human nature to determine the value of things based on how much others are willing to pay. I am convinced that if an absolute time limited auction produced the highest results for sellers that Sotheby's and the other big auction houses would have started using that format. I also think that eBay would be making more if they were allowing the bidding to continue until all the bidders had had their say. I have bid on things at UBid where they had the five minute rule (actually I think their's was 10 minutes) and I always seemed to bid a little more than I intended - perhaps it is an indication that I have poor auction discipline - but I'm darn sure not in that boat alone. I think a five minute rule would improve prices for sellers - and not produce chaos.