Posted By:
GlennWill,
I'm basically in agreement with you. I've never used a sniping service, and I often place my max bid several days out (and occasionally win). As far as I can see, sniping services only exist because of a) shill bidding or the fear thereof and b) people's willingness to pay substantially more than what an item is otherwise (i.e., minus their own bid) likely to go for. I tend not to think that shill bidding is quite as prevalent as most others here seem to believe, but even if I'm grossly underestimating its frequency sniping would still be of negligible benefit for me since my bids are always on the low end of what an item is "worth". So if someone does engage in shill bidding they're not so much driving up the price I'd have to pay as they are replacing the bidders who would otherwise have done the same thing to me.