Posted By:
Joe D."But if I wanted to counter I can't because of a Snipe set at 30 seconds left. So the price stays lower than it could have in the end. To my mind - price manipulation, but feel free to prove me wrong. "
I don't know that I can prove you wrong.
But I would say.... eBay chose to be a timed auction.
Other auction houses choose to have a 10-minute rule to guard against the last second bid / no chance to counter.
So the snipes are just working within the confines set by eBay
Of course there is a way for you to combat a snipe without sniping yourself. Just put in your actual max bid when you bid.