you got sniped.. you're bidding against software, no-one can click that fast.

I use www.auctionstealer.com
Their service is free, up to 3 auctions a week. I never bid that much, so it works fine for me. I've been trying to get some skate XC ski boots, but they've been selling for near retail.

I don't understand this whole sniping business. Just figure out what the maximum you want to pay for any given item is and put that in as your proxy bid. No sniping service will be able to win, unless someone is willing to pay more than your maximum and as such you wouldn't have bid anyways.

Just seems easier to bid once and forget about it until the auction is over.

The major advantage to sniping is that there is no bid until the last few seconds, so the price may not get bid higher in the course of the auction. Sniping beats the incremental bidder, since they don't get a chance to respond to the higher bid: whereas the proxy responds immediately, and the incremental bidder can then up their bid to 50c more than your maximum. The optimal strategy is probably to use the proxy system only when a first bid has already been registered.

My personal experience was that I didn't win anything by proxy bidding: using the sniping software I'm up to about 60% successful. The losing 40% is simply other people overpaying as far as I can tell.

Best category is in shifters. Performance or Supergo for new dura ace 9 speed shifters 250-275...290. People will buy them used, 300 miles or less, on ebay for 180-230. There is some savings but is it really worth saving 55-65 bucks to buy someone else's who rode them 300 miles to 500 miles.

Why?