EBAY article - from Yahoo.com

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Bidder sniping has much to do do with seller's moving away from the traditional auction format. I always said if all the bidding in a 7 day auction happens in the last two hours, don't call it a 7 day auction, call it a two hour auction. And if its a 2 hour auction, what's the point of having a 7 day auction? Sniping subverts the tradition auction and led to sellers moving away from that format. Sellers ending auctions early to sell off-auction is an example of a reaction to the covert bidding. By its nature and intention snipe bidding hides information from the seller until the very end-- as opposed to the tradition auction format where the seller could observe interest and rising pricing. Further, whether one considers this good or bad, sniping is designed to suppress the final price. Many sellers became unwilling to wait in the dark for the happy or unhappy last second surprise (final price) and either would end auctions early for decent price, add BINs to the auction our simply skip the auction format.