There have been several posts here from fustrated bidders who have not won auctions because someone else outbid them right near the end of the auction. This is called being "sniped". The fustrated bidders complain that they were sniped. After giving this some thought, I can't understand why the under bidders are complaining. With eBay you should only bid once with the maximum amount you want to pay for an item. eBay will automatically increase your bid the minimum increment over the previous bid until you reach your maximum. So you never over pay, like you might in some mail bid auctions, you only pay one increment over the previous bid. It really does not matter when you make your bid, just bid your maximum amount. If someone else outbids you, then they are willing to pay more than you are. End of story. What does it matter when they make the bid? I can understand being fustrated when you do not win an item, but you should be just fustrated at being out bid, not at being sniped. If you are fustrated at being sniped, then you really saying that "I would have bid more if I knew someone else was going to out bid me". Well that is just a really poor bidding strategy for eBay.