quote:My snipe outbid the previous high bidder and they came back with 6 seconds to go and placed another bid
If that was your max, then you were outbid fair & square!
Agreed you do seem to have fallen to one who increased his bid a bit later, but you were engaging in a marginal bidding war and the risk of losing is very high indeed.
However AS is but a simple tool to place bids near the end of an auction. It is no substitute for your research into what other buyers may do.
e.g. Some Kastrup Holmegaard glassware this week:
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=7421418056
I had seen that this type of glass ended up around £30. So had everybody else. I got it for £33 because all who participated were around the £30 mark because they had reached the same conclusion. If I had bid around this region when I had first seen it at £15 and I hadn't done my research then I would have gone for £31.78 and lost.
In fact I bid over £40 to get me well clear of the opposition. In your example, another bidder would` have upped his bid, but he would have probably gone for mid £30s.
So if you want something badly, you have to pay a premium - AS or manual bidding makes no difference. An auction is an auction - bidding at the last second has no effect on the outcome if I am prepared to pay more than you!
If you want to "mix it" with the "lets get a bargain" crew, then you must expect to lose 50% of the auctions you participate in.
Paul