Sniping was created by the eBay concept of ending an auction at a specific time, not by evil people. It will never go away unless the system changes. Meanwhile both as both buyers and sellers we work within the system.
I've often wondered if a different system (more like a real auction) could be established. I think it would have to be a new type of online auction where the seller names only a rough ending time for the auction, probably to the nearest day (or even an hour would be OK). The running rules would be that the seller ends the auction manually when he thinks the bidding has died out. That would force everyone to end their bidding early, as in a real auction, or risk having the auction close. Actually, it seems to me that a seller could actually do the above in an eBay auction. That is, clearly announce that he will manually close the auction a few hours early, and why he's doing it. But is that legal by eBay rules? And will it necessarily be of any benefit to the seller? I think it might be. Jim
