i always get out bid at the during the last few seconds buy a dollar. let say i bid on something and my max is $25 and in the last seconds i get outbid and someone wins it for $26. well in that case i would have paid the extra dollar. i think ebay should ban the sniper programs. if you want it that bad then babysit the auction untill it ends like the old days.
The problem is that you WERE willing to pay more than $25, but you didn't bid that. If you were willing to pay $26, why didn't you bid that? What about $27?
The REAL problem is - you want to WIN. You can't go into an auction wanting to WIN, not if you're trying to buy stuff. That's like being one of those Christmas nutballs who trample their fellow shoppers to get the hot toy first - it's not about the toy at that point, it's about the win! But if you go in wanting to win, then getting outbid offends you (because you didn't WIN!).
If your objective is to actually purchase parts at reasonable prices, you have to figure out what those prices are to you (and you are the only one who can figure that out) and you have to bid that. Figure in shipping, too.
I never do bid sniping, and I bid my max when I decide I want to buy. And I make it my MAX - the maximum amount of money I am willing to pay. If I get outbid, then I get outbid - and the other guy has to pay the higher price. And you know what? I get outbid. And then I bid on the next one that comes up.
If I don't get one of some rare item for long enough, I up what I'm willing to pay. Or I keep not getting it. Either way, it's about the item, not about winning, so I don't have a problem with bid snipers. This worked wonders for me on several occasions - Rodger Sharp's book 'Pinball' ($31) and the Ken & Fran Rubin's 'Drop Coin Here' ($50). Both of which tend to go for much more at the time I bought them - I waited, I knew what I wanted to pay, I held out for my price, and I got it.
I too wish Ebay would extend the auction by a few minutes on any bid in the last 60 seconds, but that doesn't seem likely to happen (sensible folks like us have been proposing it since WAY back). So we have to live with the bid sniping.
The only sensible thing to do is to not play the same game that the bid snipers are playing!