I have never worried about shill bidding, because I bid at the end of auctions. It is a fact that if you bid at the end of auctions you will pay less. The longer you give others to react to your bid, the higher the prices will be. I have never heard of "shill snipers" because that doesn't make much sense. The seller would risk not selling the item and having to pay all the Ebay fees anyway which (on $100 plus items) will always be more than what a reserve would have cost in the first place! Sellers who are really worried about the price they get will just start with a reserve or an acceptable opening figure.