Ethics of last minute auction "poaching"

Msnloeth, BLBloom and Going Once all hit it on the head with various points. Why telegraph your moves to "the enemy" that your competing against ? It makes no sense if your competing for the same item and there are only so many to go around. There are two types of people that end up with expensive or rare items. Those that can afford to outright buy it and pay face value for it or those that know how to manipulate the best possible deals that bring it down to their price range. Auctions are the same way. You either have to walk over the top of everyone else with a monster bid or do you best to camoflauge your attack and try to sneak in when nobody is expecting it. I will say that Audiogon's auction process is much closer to that of a real live auction, as those don't end at a specified time. As long as there is bidding going on, the auction is still open. Sean
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Actually, it is called sniping.

Yes, it is called sniping....I agree, this is just how auctions work megasam, live with it! But, I also agree that the audiogon policy of continuing to extend the auction deadline as long as new bids keep coming in should end, and go with a hard "endtime" just like eBay does. Of course, by having this moving endtime, on average it will lead to higher sale prices, and since audiogon is structured to benefit sellers (and not buyers), well, now you can see why auctions are structured here the way they are.

I believe these people also are the ones who "cut in lines"
so they don't have to wait. When everyone else waited...
Fair? Hardly.

Actually, it seems to me that many of you are missing the point of the "Proxy Bid" type of auction as seen here and on ebay. If everyone just entered the maximum amount they are willing to pay, then someone will get it for less than that amount. I find it anoying that people bid at the last second not because I may get outbid but because of the lack of understanding how the proxy works. Even if someone outbid me by 1 cent, I can not complain because when I placed my bid I decided that $XX was the maximum I was willing to pay. If you were willing to pay $XX.01, then you should have bid that. If you do not win an auction, it is your own fault. If someone, in the last seconds jacks up the price, you still got the item for less than the max amount you were willing to pay. There is very little grounds for complaint here.