Rich -- One problem is that you did not do a true snipe. A truly good snipe bid is put in with insufficient time for anyone else to enter a higher bid (30 seconds before closure, MAX). In response to Travis -- the proxy bid has been on e-bay for a long time. If someone has a higher bid than yours (even in proxy) you are notified at the time you bid. If your bid is higher, then it is set one increment higher than the max on the previous bid. In response to Andy -- Bid what you want to pay for a chip (max), then if you are out bid, you should not be disappointed because you didn't want to pay that much anyhow.