Reply to "The case for bidding manually first, then sniping."

I agree ... most times a reserve is entered instead of setting the opening bid so potential bidders aren't scared away from bidding. I've found that about 80% of the time sellers are willing to tell me what their reserve is. I then decide if I want to bid or not.

The only time I don't snipe is if I see an auction that's ending within a couple of minutes that also hasn't had any bids placed. Too many people think something MUST be worth buying simply because other people are bidding on it. I think it's the same mental mechanism that makes people sit at dirty tables in a restaurant even though there are plenty of clean ones available (someone else liked THIS table - it MUST be good)!