So, by your definition, sniping is entering your maximum bid at the last moment. I suppose that that makes sense, since it tends to avoid people whose apparent reason for bidding is to screw other people. I understand your point now. I was thinking under the assumption that each person was interested in purchasing an item up to a certain amount of money. I see that that's not necessarily the case. Some people seem to be interested, albeit possibly subconsciously or indirectly through ignorance, in harming other people.

This reminds me of a social experiment I indirectly heard about. A researcher gathered a collection of x number of people and had them play a trivia game for reward (money, I think), based on their scores at the game. The players didn't interact with each other during the game. At the end of the game, all of the players were allowed to see the scores of all of the players. Then they were given two options. Either take the reward based directly on your score, or forfeit a portion of your reward in order to also reduce the rewards of all of the other players. To be clear, the only ``advantage'' to reducing your reward was that the other players rewards would also be reduced. Over two-thirds of the players chose to reduce the rewards.

I hate people.