Ethics of last minute auction "poaching"

All auctions have their rules of game. If the bidder follow the rules then there is no question of Ethics.
It is grossly unfair to someone who happens to find an item of auction to his favour but he is not allowed to bid because the time remaining is less than 60 seconds from the stated auction time.
Megasam, you won the auction at a price you have voluntarily set. What is your complaint?
Do you imply that you are outraged by having to pay $120 more in the last 60 seconds?
Or do you mean that since you have put a bid then no one should bid it in the last 60 seconds?
Do you consider that there will be no ethical issue if someone put in a bid at 61 seconds before auction ends?

I think that auctions are all about strategy, judgement and discipline.

If a bidder hasn't made a clear decision about what they are willing to pay BEFORE they bid, then they get what they get.
Proxy bidding enables this. Bid what you are willing to pay.

I think that Audiogon's OT gives a better sense of fair play to bidders that may want to feel the excitement (or the PAIN) of bidding real time. I think that it can definitely help the sellers as well.

It's the nature of the beast. All's fair in love, war and auctions.

My contention is that people who "snipe" are attempting to win an auction by hoping they can sneak in a last second bid and other buyers don't have time to react or make another bid. It is a inherently deceptive, sneaky, misleading, but not illegal way to bid. I think they look for items that have a low number of bids, and hope no one has set their proxy much higher, and then can make their score. Sniping is not accidental, but a strategy that is planned out ahead. My complaint is I don't care for the practice of "sniping" and therefore I plan on avoiding auctions here and stick with regular adds, people who practice this may think it is a great strategy, I will leave them to snipe each other all they want.

Cutting in line ? Hardly. Doug's basic premise is NOT what an auction is about. Putting in bids "in an orderly fashion" would be just like the seller "taking offers" in a specific order. If that is what the seller wanted to do, they would have done that instead of putting it up for auction. Auctions are completely unpredictable in real life with no set ending time, so why should it be different here ? As it is, having a "set" closing time ENCOURAGES "sniping". A "pro" knows EXACTLY when to bid and knows that it would be hard to beat them, so they wait till the end and lull you into self-confidence. Having the auction go into "overtime" actually minizes "sniping" and allows that are interested the opportunity to "defend" their bid. As was suggested, place your max bid and then hope for the best. If you REALLY want that item, hang out and ride the wave until the very end. Hopefully you won't get drowned in the process. Sean
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In a live auction, there's no time limit, and the guy who wins is the guy who's willing to pay the most for the item. (And he usually has to pay less than the highest amount he is willing to pay, because he only has to pay enough to top the next guy.) The way to re-create that online would be to scrap the time limit, and declare that the bidding stops when there have been no new bids for, say, 24 hours. I think Sean hit the problem on the head: It's the time limit that creates the sniping. OT mitigates it somewhat.