I suspect that eBay really likes the snipeing aspect of its bidding
system, because it tends to pressure people to put out their maximum
bids early on and put them high.

Snipeing could be made ineffective if eBay used a system that would
hold bidding open for another five minutes or so, whenever a new bid
is received in the last minutes of an auction.  I am told that some
auction sites do just that.

Matthew Caulfield (Irondequoit, N.Y.)