You have made a lot of good points. Many are the same reasons that I resort to sniping sometimes. As I was saying earlier in this thread I have learned to take my max and whittle a little off. I will place a fair proxy bid of what I will pay -that small reserve. Then judging on what happens in the auction I will wait to put the final bid till the last seconds.

Another example from the one earlier was a childhood book that a friend wanted. She had been out looking desparately for this book, at used book fairs etc., that would remind her of her childhood. I found it on eBay and she wanted, desparately, for me to bid on her behalf. She said that she would pay $10 for it. I took off the S/H price($2) then took off the cost of a money order to Canada($3) and, well, forgot about the postage of the payment to Alberta (.68)not .34. Open was for $1.99 and I bid $3.50. I sat on it for 5 days till someone came in and bid $2.24. My bid kicked in again to $2.74? then someone came in and knocked me off at $4.51. I then waited till the last seconds to go to $5.50 and actually won it at $4.76. All totaled paid $10.36.

Where the other example was to combat someone who was bidding increments to outbid everyone who bid against him, this time it was just to make sure that someone didn't outbid me again on something that was important to bring a lot of happiness to someone. In looking at other Golden Book auctions on eBay these books generally only get about 2 or 3 bucks. I don't think, in this case, the dealer got a bad deal at all. I also think that I probably saved another person some money by not giving them the opportunity to bid again. It is sort of an emotional item and some can get a bit carried away. I was just saving my friend the dissappointment and expense if whe wanted to reconsider her high bid. Especially in relation to items that have an emotional appeal, bidding wars can raise the bids to unrealistic heights.