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And in a bid sniping situation, you don't even get the chance to find out if you are the highest bidder until it is too late to do anything about it if you are not.

That's a feature, not a bug. If you always snipe with the amount you're actually willing to pay, you win the item in all cases where you can afford it, and lose it in all cases where you can't. That's surely perfect for the buyer -- how could any other strategy, on Ebay's part or yours, do better?

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Sure, Joe Bidder is sitting there as high man on the totem pole with his $85 bid, but that only means he has out-bid the next highest bidder. His actual bid is most likely higher than that, possibly much higher than that. Thus the dangers of bid sniping. You think you're safe bidding $100 with 15 seconds to go, only to find out (too late) that Joe's bid was higher than you expected.

Why did you bid $100? If it's because that's all you're willing to pay, you don't want to win if Joe's bid is higher. If it's less than you're willing to pay, you aren't genuinely attempting to buy the item.

Even if you're talking about the emotional, as opposed to purely financial, cost of buying on Ebay, by sniping you're on tenterhooks for maybe a minute, rather than for several days -- much less emotionally wearing.

Sniping, even automatic sniping, is not a problem and should not be "dealt with". I'd never bid for anything on Ebay if I couldn't snipe.

Peter