This article talks about sniping versus proxy bidding.

Let's assume you have found an item and the seller has good feedback (98 % or higher)

The item is one you have been looking for and there it is! You must have it! Wait! Wait...

Ask yourself how much you are willing to pay for the item. Be sure to count the shipping and handling cost into the equation too because that is very much a part of the cost to you.

So let's say you see your widjit (item) and you are willing to pay $15.00 for it plus the shipping. Okay - the item has a starting bid of 2.99 with no bids and there is 5 days left. You can do several things at this point.

You can add it to your watch list. The downside to that is you may forget about it and the auction might be over before you know it.

You could put an opening of 2.99 on it and hope no one else bids. If they don't you have a bargain!

However, if someone else bids you no longer are winning the auction. So now you have to go back and bid again. Maybe you are away, whatever, and you miss out because of it. That is where proxy bidding comes in.

What is proxy bidding? In this example, you like the widjit, you place a bid of $15.00 on it because that is the most you are willing to pay for the item. Actually it is a good idea to add a few odd cents to the amount so you have bid $15.26.

What happens now. Maybe some one else comes in and bids $10.00. They will receive a notice saying they have been outbid. At this point they aren't willing to pay more and so the auction closes at $10.00. You are the winner and you have a bargain! You will be paying $5.00 less than you expected. Congratulations!

What if someone comes in and pays more than the $15.00. Ah well then - they win and you don't. BUT.... since you didn't want to pay more than $15.00, it's okay. You didn't lose your head and bid more than you wanted for the item. There will be another day, another auction.

What is sniping?  In our example above you spot the auction and there is only a few hours left and no one has bid. Or someone has bid but the bid is low - say at 6.99 at the moment. What to do? You could proxy bid as outlined above. Or you could "snipe".

Sniping means you come in at as close to the end of the auction as you can and place your bid, hoping that you will not be outbid by someone else because you probably won't have time to place another bid. So when sniping, again you will want to place your highest bid that you are willing to pay for the item. So you come in, during the last minute and bid $15.26. The price zooms to 11.50. The auction has 20 seconds left. You refresh the page, the auction is over and you have won!! Still a bargain at a price you  want to pay. Congratulations!

Seems easy doesn't it? And it is. There are even services that will snipe for you during the last minute. I choose to do my own sniping though. Somehow I don't trust someone else with my password and other info so that a service can snipe for me.

Often too you will have other bidders email after an auction complaining that they wanted the item for their child/ mother/ brother or whatever and you stole it from them by sniping. Ignore it all. It is not illegal to snipe. It is a legitimate way of bidding on an auction. Good luck, have fun and happy bidding and winning at the price you want to pay.