Either the winning bidder was using a sniping system, or simply waited until seconds before the end of the auction to place his/her highest bid. The easiest--and best, in my opinion--way to bid on ebay is to wait until the final seconds of the auction before placing any bid. At that time, place your bid--the highest price you are willing to pay for the item. That way, you avoid artificially driving up the price during the auction. If you win, it will probably be at a cost lower than your highest bid. If you lose, you haven't really lost anything, since the winning bid was higher than you were willing to go. :)

What's the time frame on his bid vs yours? Can you give an auction #?

I used to wait until the last seconds and hope I made it in time, at a high enough bid. Nervewracking, and there may be another person gambling too, but I learned early on that if you haggle back and forth with someone over a period of time, the price just keeps going up, up, up. Drove me nuts when a couple of new folks would compete for the darn thing and keep outbidding each other -- driving the price way up!

In the past, I've used Auctionstealer.com (link below). I'm not so much on sniping anymore, though. I usually just wait until close to end of auction, assess what the item is going for, and bid as much as I'm comfortable paying. If I don't win the auction, I figure there'll probably be another "whatsit" that I've just bid on come up for auction again soon. It always seems to happen that way.

Here is a link that might be useful: Auctionstealer

I use auctionstealer, too (on the good recommendation of our JohnMari :). It has worked very well for me. I think that it crashed a few weeks ago, but I wasn't aware as I wasn't bidding during that time period.

I only use it if I'm going to be away from the computer, because I'm a pretty good sniper on my own. ;) Auctionstealer is free for the 10 second version (3 bids/week, I think). If you want to have the unlimited, 2 or 3 second version of any sniping program (including auctionstealer) you have to pay a fee for it.

There is one called esnipe...you can decide what is the most you would (or should, LOL) pay for the item, how many seconds before the end of the auction you want your bid to be placed, and the program will watch the auction for you and place the bid at the very last minute or second. You don't have to stay up all night to watch the auction, you don't have to drive up the price with the back and forth bidding, and it won't bid your full amount unless the bidding goes that high anyway. In other words, if you are willing to pay $50 but the bidding has only reached $30 seconds before the bidding ends, esnipe will just barely top the last bid and you may get it for $31. If that makes sense, LOL.

I bid exactly as organic described above - only lost out on an item once so far. Since I only bid as high as I'm willing to go, I tried not to be too disappointed! On the down side, I do sometimes miss out on bidding on items I'm interested in because I forget the closing date/time.

I might need to look into auctionstealer - it beats calling and bothering my sister to sniper bid for me on those days I'm away from my computer!

Yep, as southernheart says, I'm an Auctionstealer user as well. I've got a snipe set up for a mailbox right now. :-) I really have better things to do than to schedule my life around eBay auctions, even if it's just sleeping! (Besides, I just lost connectivity for about 24 hours - had there been any auctions I was planning on "in-person sniping" during that time, I'd have been screwed.) I like being able to put my max bid in and go do something else, which you can do in eBay itself, yes, but I can also go back and cancel the snipe if I change my mind or find a better price (as happens from time to time). eBay gets awfully pi$$y if you withdraw a bid for changing your mind! Not being present at the end of the auction also minimizes the opportunity for "nibbling" bid increases that can drive the price over what I'm really willing to spend out of some foolish sense of "gotta have it".

I've been outbid using Auctionstealer, yes, but I would have been outbid anyway because they simply bid higher than the amount I deemed was the maximum amount I was willing to pay for something - that's the way I've looked at it.

I checked the details on the bidding. The buyer bid at Oct-20-07 15:39:17 PDT (for the first time) and the auction ended at Oct-20-07 15:39:23 PDT. What is that, 6/100 of a second? So close!

I check my bid with 1 second left and I was still the high bidder.

I guess I will try Auctionstealer, thanks for the info on that.

Just Snipe... that's what we use. You get 5 free snipes a week, and then the charge for additional snipes is minimal.

Here is a link that might be useful: Just Snipe

Wow, I had been using bidnapper. I paid for about ten or twenty snipes which I still haven't used up. Never knew there were free ones out there. May have to switch--if I start buying on eBay again. Thanks for the info!

About 4 years ago I was on the Community Board at Ebay and learned about Sniping tools online.
Heard about lots of them and I think I tried them all.
Tried as many as there were 'Free Trials'.
I finally settled on the best Snipe program for my uses.
Auction Sentry -- Dan's website is linked below.
No, I don't know the man personally (nor do I have any interest in AS except that I love the program) but having so many crashes on my computers over the last year I've had to email him way too many times to count.
He's always gracious and patient and helps me re-set up my AS program.
I've had to email him so many times that we are now on a first name basis. *grin*

There is a trial program.
A Basic Program (the one I decided to purchase)
and a Deluxe program which I've never bothered with because the basic program has everything I need.

I've taken a print/screen to show anyone interested what the program has.
The back main screen is where you insert the auction number from Ebay (bottom left and I use copy/paste to make sure I don't mix up the auction number).

The box in front I brought up by clicking the yellow wrench in the main page tool bar.
This is the area where you can change your options--how you'd like the program to work for your needs.

There are free updates almost weekly. Every single time Ebay changes something in their format, AS has an update.

I got the Snipe program because I was on dial up and it was so slow clicking back and forth and refreshing the auctions at the last minute. I would also get kicked off line a lot during that time.
Yes, I've lost auctions even with the program but that's because I didn't bid as high as the buyer who must have really wanted it.
My fault, not the fault of Ebay or the AS Program.
If you set the program to update you of latest bids on the item it will send a green warning signal.
At that time, if someone is getting close to your final bid you have the option to go into the program and raise your bid (if you really, really want to go higher for the item).
The program doesn't come on until you look in your Start file or click your desktop icon for it.
Then it just sits in your bottom toolbox until you need to see it then click it and will will come up on your screen, small or large, you choose.

I probably didn't explain any of this very well but I'm hoping the picture helps anyone who isn't familiar with a Snipe Program.

Here is a link that might be useful: Auction Sentry Trial / Main Page

Maybe I'm missing something here (I did go look at the site, look through their FAQs etc.), but I don't understand why one would want to use an auction sniper that depends on your computer being on and having an active connection to the internet - aren't you screwed if your connection goes kersplat or you have a power outage?

Our computer is on 24/7 99% of the time - no problems.

I bid at auctions all the time. About to go to another one in a little while. Auntjen has it right. Decide the most you want to pay, submit the bid as late as possible and forget it. If your bid is higher than another snipers, you'll get what you're bidding on.

Because of the sniping and the automated programs, I've been a bit turned off ebay. I've been using the ebay live auctions and there is some great stuff on there that's been taken and vetted by an auction house, which I like. I still check the condition, but you get to know who you trust. There is third party shipping as well.

A charming Victorian stool with an iron scrollwork base I featured on my auction picks went for $20 last night. Someone got a great buy.

On live, there is no sniping. You can see the bidding or submit your bid in advance and take your chances. The program does the bidding for you.

sue36, you are looking at hours:minutes:seconds there, so the other bid was entered six seconds before the end, not 6/100ths of a second.

When you are outbid and the winning bidder wins by a small amount, this is almost always one bid increment. He may have put in a bid that was much higher but he only has to win by one bid increment, so that's all that he has to pay. Ebay's bid proxy system works really well this way.

Once in awhile someone will win by less than one bid increment but I think this is only when his bid was entered before yours. Maybe. It's happened to me on both ends many times in nine years of ebay buying and selling. Someday I'll look at this more closely and figure out the details! Ha.

When you put in an amount, always add some change to foil those who bid in even dollar amounts. For example, if you are willing to pay $25.00 for something, make your bid amount something like $26.88. You'll beat anyone who is also thinking $25 is a good price, and you'll beat those who think that going a few cents more (like $25.01 or $25.50) is a smart tactic. Sometimes I go one odd-number notch up and then another just to be safe, and more than a few times this has been necessary to win!

And usually if you're willing to pay $25, then another dollar plus change is not a big deal.

Oh, and I've been using Auctionstealer for many years and am quite happy with it. I used the free snipes for a long time and then started paying by the year for their service. I think only once they failed to bid for me and I have not had any problems with security at all.

cattknap, I asked because we had a 24+ hour cable-internet outage all day Friday (Metrocast blows, although Comcast would have bad lags and shorter outages from time to time), and we have frequent power outages in the winter up in this neck of the woods. I'd have been heartbroken if an auction for something I really wanted was up on Friday and I couldn't get my bid in for it because I was dependent on a sniper that couldn't connect. Since I have a laptop, I could have taken it out in search of working power/wi-fi but it's tricky to haul a desktop to Burger King. ;-) (I was highly amused to see "Free Wi-Fi" signs outside the ol' BK.)

Our comcast has periodic outages, too...and if we're away for a few days, we shut our computer down.

I thought one of the advantages of using a a snipe program was so you 'could' have a power outage or be out of town while bidding on an item, and not have to worry about it. Is it true all the snipers require your computer to be up and running......or just certain ones require this?

I can't understand why you wouldn't want to use a sniping service. I use one for all eBay except buy it now.
And I win a lot more sniping.

annz, totally-online snipe tools like Auctionstealer, Auctionsniper, Bidnapper, etc. have nothing at all to do with your computer - it is snipe software that you install on your home machine that requires your computer to be turned on, not "asleep" or "idle", and have an active, non-lagged connection to the Internet.

I haven't bid on ebay using any method other than sniping for about three years now. I use auctionsniper.com - it's not free, but I've only lost one snipe in the past three years because their system was down, and that was a couple of years ago on a Sunday evening. Since then I've extended my automatic snipe time to 8 seconds, and haven't had a problem.

Like Johnmari says, auctionsniper is one of the online snipers that doesn't require your computer to be on.

Like bumblebeez, I can't imagine NOT sniping any more. I set my highest bid in auctionsniper, and if I get out-sniped, it's because I didn't want to go that high anyway. I've got feedback of over 1200 (100% positive), and I don't want anybody to see I'm bidding on an item anyway. I figure I've saved way more on auction prices by sniping than I'm paying for my snipes.