I don't see anything wrong with "sniping" as long as it is not someone using one of those automated programs. I have won and lost auctions in the final seconds of an aution. I have sold things that doubled in price in the last few minutes.
It's an auction, that is the way it goes. That is the way it is with any auctions, online or live. If you have ever been to a live auction, sometimes the bidding restarts just as the auctioneer is about slam down the gavel. In sealed bid auctions, you never know what anyone else is bidding at all until its over. My son's school has an auction every year. They have tables full of stuff. Each table is designate to end at a certian time, each item has a piece of paper in front of it to write down your bid. It is funny to watch some of the people write down their bid on the paper as the last 10 seconds are counting down, talk about live sniping (seen some arguments start).
If eBay or any other timed auction said you can't bid in the final 15 seconds, then in reality, teh auction would end 15 seconds sooner and "snipers" would bid 15 seconds before that. Maybe some people think that after one person bids, the auction should be over, what would be the point or fun of that.
If it something that I really care about getting, I will suck it up and use the "Buy-It-Now" instead of crossing my fingers for the the next few days.
Soren
