Since the email was addressed to me, I can post it, and will do so here.

you have been outbid on the following eBay item:
LaserWriter Pro 630 <47k 20Mb OSX G3/G4 OK!
Item name: LaserWriter Pro 630 <47k 20Mb OSX G3/G4 OK!
Current price: $123.50
End date: Monday, Aug 05, 2002 06:50:21 PDT

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From member: [email protected]
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But I was watching...wanna buy my old Laserwriter 4/600?

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Hey, there's that CD I want, out of circulation for years!

I bet some sniper's gonna bid fifty bucks for it.

So I'm going to countersnipe them with fifty and a quarter.

The downside is, no one ever uses it.

The reason why sniping works is because a lot of bidders don't know how to bid. Instead of bidding what they are willing to pay, they try to bid just a little bit more than the last bidder. This results in a self-imposed handicap when there isn't enough time to place another bid. You can't blame the sniper for using the system as it was intended.

I was bidding on a copy of Tetris Gold that I found offered by a seller in Oz, 'cause you know Danamomma can't get enough of that falling block rush. After being overbid a couple times, I entered a $50 bid, which gave it to me at $48. "Nobody'll want to spend that much," I told myself, and went to bed well after midnight thinking that in a couple hours the game would be mine.

I woke up the next morning to find that someone had outbid me at the last minute. They had taken the game for $51 AU, which I think is about $25 US.

http://www.auctionsniper.com/default.aspx

(Summary description):

"Auction Sniper is an eBay sniper that automates the process of placing your bid in the closing seconds of any eBay auction, dramatically increasing your chance of winning. We keep it simple: you tell us what you want to win, and we snipe eBay for you. Best of all, Auction Sniper is free to try. After you win your first auction with our help, you’ll never bid the same way again."

i.e. item that's worth $40-50 to me is going for $10.75.
I place a $45 dollar bid, which pushes the public price to 11.75.
With 30 seconds to go sniper tries to grab it for $20.01. *Bzzzt* You have been outbid, $21.01. Sniper tries $30.02. *Bzzt* $31.02. Sniper tries $41.05. *Bzzt* $42.05. Auction has ended. SomeGuy is the winner. Now $42.05 is more than I really wanted to pay so I curse Sniper for pushing up the price, but I still win.

If you are in the market to buy something, then you'll end up buying what you want at the prices that you want. If you are in the market for thrills, well, too bad, somebody else is willing to pay more than you are.

Sniping does bother me is when I suspect that the sniper is actually a shill for the seller -- someone with no feedback who bids only on one seller's auctions. Here is my strategy: I start by placing a decent bid on an item I want (say, $40 on an item that I will pay $50 for). If I see some suspicious character bumping up the price with bids at $36.50, $37.50, $38.50, then I will not make my second bid of $50, and somebody else will eventually get it -- hopefully the shill.