The only times I've made an offer was when there was an "or Best Offer" option already available on the auction. If the seller doesn't mind haggling I don't mind haggling.

I'm not ashamed to say I'm a sniper. I do it because of all the times I've run into shill bidders bidding up their buddies auctions for them. In the old days it was easy to spot a shiller. Two sellers working together would show up in each other's bidders lists for most of their auctions. Often I would bid and later a seller would send me email saying the winner wasn't going to pay so would I please buy the item I had lost for the maximum amount I had bid. In other words they had out shilled what every legitimate buyer was willing to pay and they didn't want to pay the relist fee and try again. Now Ebay makes it harder to spot shillers but we all know they are still out there. Some sellers even have multiple Ebay accounts and don't try to hide the fact. When someone has more than one account they can shill their own auctions. I'm wary of people that I know have more than one account for that reason.

I snipe the old fashioned way myself, by submitting my bid when there's just a few seconds left and bidding the max amount I am willing to pay but no more. There have been times even then when I was the high bidder for a couple seconds and then lost the auction. It doesn't matter to me because I would have lost anyway. The people that outbid me must place more value on the item than I do so they deserve it.

Lori