You've bid on and have been following that precious item that you could not find ANYWHERE else on eBay. You are soooo close to winning it; in fact you were the high bidder of the auction!

Until...the...last...few...seconds...Oh no!

You haven't been punk'd, but you have been outbid. Relax, it happens to probably millions (if not billions) of eBay shoppers on a regular basis. Since so many people regularly use and shop on eBay these days, the site has become a fiercely competitive arena of shoppers who are willing and in many cases able to do whatever it takes to win an item at all costs, if you'll pardon the expression.

The term Sniping is often used to define the actions an auction shopper who manages to submit a winning bid for an item within the last few seconds of an auction's end. It isn't illegal but it is definitely on the shady side.

I've been the victim of sniping, but I've also on a few occasions been the perpetrator of sniping. The methods people use to accomplish sniping vary. Some actually use software to search eBay auctions for items they are interested in and then automatically submit bids at strategic points during the auction until either the high bid is achieved or until the bid amount exceeds what the sniping party is willing to pay.

As I haven't done sniping much, I've only used what I call a "manual method" of sniping. I simply monitor an eBay auction of an item that I want. I make sure that the amount I'm willing to pay for the item is higher than the current high bid for the item. I then wait until the auction is almost over. By almost over, I mean less than 5 minutes to go before the end time of the auction. I might even wait until under a minute if the auction item already has bids from several other people. After all, the intention is to take people by surprise before they have a chance to offer another bid to beat yours. I then make my bid with maybe a few minutes or preferably a few seconds remaining in the auction. I've won items from comic books to video cameras using that same technique.

Remember, the advantage of eBay is it can be an incidental marketplace. By incidental marketplace, I mean that the demand for an item will fluctuate depending on many factors like the time of year, and most importantly, how many people happen to be searching for the same item on eBay at that point in time. What you should also remember is that sniping has, is, and will continue to be a part of eBay for the foreseeable future. Those who are engaging in the practice are shrewd individuals who do more than study the items for bid on eBay...they study the people bidding on them.