I was sniped several times in my early days, so I started sniping manually. One of the most challenging parts was when I would not be near a computer, so in those cases I would just bid as late as I could, though that was sometimes hours away.
Sniping manually worked fairly well when I was at the computer and I had a pretty good record. But the time that sniping stung me the most was a mix of both being there and not being there. I had not expected to be at the computer when an auction ended, so I put in a manual bid 90 minutes before auction end, hoping that this would prevail.
As luck would have it, I got home before the auction ended and was, in fact, at the computer as the seconds clicked down. Now, since I had already put in my max bid for the rare book (I think it was $70+, which is more than most auctions for me), I was not entering any snipe manually. I was just hoping that my high bid would prevail. As I kept hitting the refesh button, I became quite excited as I was still the high bidder with only 15 seconds left! My heart was thumping at the thought of getting this rare edition and...and...and...and when I hit refresh one last time, I found........that I had lost to a sniper!
I was livid. I could not understand how this fellow managed to get his bid in at 7 seconds. "How could he do it so late?" I wondered, as processors were still a bit slower than they are now. Moreover, that individual stole my book, damn it! (I uttered far worse vulgarites than that, I must admit, which was even more ironic, considering that the book in question was a religious text.)
I whined to a coworker the next day. She shared stories with me of having lost Precious Moments and other knick-knacks at the last second, for which she had "cleared a place on the shelf" in her mind. Like me, she knew that she absolutely wanted her missed items FAR MORE than the sniper could EVER have wanted it. Somehow, wanting it more meant that we should have these items, that we were entitled to them.
Two or three weeks later, I looked at an auction (I may even have won it; I do not recall) that had an Auction Sniper logo at the bottom of the description. Curious, I went to the website and the rest is history. Once I ascertained that there were many, many other folks who had had the same feelings, and that AS would not charge when I lost the auction, and that there was no way I could bid against myself, I was an immediate convert.
And, not surprisingly, the whining coworker is also using AS now, as well!
That's what happens when you are rude!