Hi.

I agree with you in some way, but have to disagree partly, too.

If everyone was doing it that way, all would be well, but actually, auctions just don't work that way. Think about the following scenario:

Someone sells item X.
Now (A) wants X, and is willing to pay 200$ for it.
I also want it and am willing to pay 210$ for it.
If nothing more would happen, I would get it for 201$, but if I enter that 210$ amount (long) before the auction ends, (A) gets some time to thing wether he would be willing to pay more than 201$ for for it (the current high bid). Let's say he is willing to pay 215$ for it after some thinking, what is going to happen? He would get it for 211$.
Now, I might even be willing to pay 220$ for X after some thinking, ...

This happens quite often. But as I don't want the prices to go up to much unnecessarily, I usually place my bids only minutes (or even seconds) before an auction ends, just to not give my "opponent" any time to think about possibly paying more than he was initially willing to.

Mind you, I only use esnipe pretty on rare occasions only.

cu,
sven