Well, I see your point. Personally, I don't like to resort to the same tactic that I'm trying to counter.. You sir are engaging in a pre-emptive strike! I have to admit that the reason I did feel this way is because when I used eBay heavily (1999), the items I were bidding on were "followed" by a close group of collectors. We all got to know eachother after a while (even emailing and congradulating someone on winning an auction). Sniping would have been a good way to ruin these relationships. Of course, this was years ago and with a unique collectable, so it's not likely to apply. I've more or less just continued this way out of habit.

Let's just agree that the eBay system is flawed... they should have a model similar to Yahoo's. Then you, I and everyone else would not have to worry about being sniped nor resort to it.