Thanks for great replies. I think you are all right, except that I *do* understand the sniping/bidding system----
What I am perplexed about is a little more complicated, though---people are winning by the dollar increment, yes, but there is often such a huge descrepancy between their bid and mine (and previous bids) that it seems suspicious.
Of course if there was a way to detect a snipe on an item, wouldn't it make sense that someone would place a bid at exactly the dollar amount (so that it looked "legitimate")??
Does that make sense? I mean someone clever enough to hack or figure out a way to detect a snipe would have the game figured out, no?
I guess what is happening is that these folks are bidding ***way*** higher than any of us are willing to pay, which is interesting in that:
A) eBay is global and so widely used (by millions of folks) thus increasing the liklihood of similar ideas about prices and value;
B) a lot of bidders are very competitive and for sought-after items have strings of close, but increasing bid amounts.
Basically money must be no object to the ones placing these inflated proxies?
Ironically (and no for nothin') I was almost relieved I *didn't* win the most recent item in question here---I knew it was more than I'd have felt comfortable paying for! So, thank you Mrs. M for reminding me of that!
Cheers!
Happy Shopping!
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