I have been away this weekend, so I am late in chiming in.
Though we, as snipers, do bid in the last half minute or so, we must not focus on getting the bid in with the lowest possible number of seconds remaining, as mentioned above. Anyone bidding at this late stage PLANS to snipe, and will do so with his full amount. Yes, people with DSL have bid with four or five seconds left, but doing so carries a great risk. Last night I sniped two auctions manually, just for the heck of it. When I did so with forty seconds left, it worked, even though I was asked for my password (and I am ALWAYS signed in), I had enough time. On the other auction, I sniped manually with 17 seconds left, got the password screen and entered that, but it was too late.
Anyway, with four AS snipes that worked, I raised my succesful AS total to 990.