Originally posted by baro-nite Happens, certainly -- I've been second high bidder any number of times, and have also won some auctions where the second high bidder was close enough that I paid my full bid. As always, in the end it does indeed come down to who bids the most. The reason I use a sniping service is to reduce the chance of having the price bid up by incremental bidders -- those who bid the minimum allowed bid repeatedly until they either give up or become the high bidder.
In this auction I was the first bidder and there wasn't another bid until the snipe attempt. Almost every auction I watch now has no bids until the final few seconds. I was watching a black Spotmatic II that came with several S-M-C Taks from a seller with 0 feedback. The final price was low for what was being offered, but every bid came in the last 5 seconds.
My philosophy is to bid what I'm willing to pay early. If the sniper is willing to pay even $1 more they are welcome to it, something else will come along shortly. For the things I'm looking at on eBat there don't seem to be any incremental bidder anymore. Shopgoodwill on the other hand...and even there there are snipers.