Sniping and tracking tools make auction management easier, not more complicated. If you really want an item, you'd have to watch the auction yourself. That's a PITA. And often there are multiple auctions ending at the same time.

When I was last buying CDs on eBay tehre were some four auctions ending within seconds of each other. Because the one seller had used a tool to list them. So, I used a tool to win all of them.

I was trying out iSnipeIt whcih is a client-side application. Over the course of a week I had it monitoring and bidding on about 50 auctions for me. That wouldn't be too handy to do manually. Plus the management features of being able to sort by seller and keep things in their own folders. Makes consolidation a breeze. There are even better tools available for management, which include both selling and buying aids.

Fairness at eBay is a secondary concern. Primary is what will bring them the money. And if people like what's there now, that's what they'll keep doing. As membership numbers climb so will eBay's service charges. They've got everyone by the balls right now. There is no other auction site that can even begin to compete. Not Yahoo and not Amazon. eBay is built on old codebase that many other people also run. You could set up your own eBay clone in a couple of days. But they still have the 20+ million blood-thirsty users that no other site will ever have. Lastly is the golden rule. He who has the gold, makes the rules.

Bruno