[David N.]

Don't forget tho, there's a whole 'nother side to ebay, the non-high-demand item side. The logic behind the non-high-demand item market is simple, pay only what you want to pay for any given item. Say I want to buy a certain book or game for $5. I go out once a week, hunt for any auctions of that item, and bid $5 on the best looking one. Come back a week later and see if I won, no? Ok, search again, repeat at will until I win it.

I think ebay was originally designed with this sort of system in mind. If the system was really built on actually bidding in the final hours/minutes, it would deny all the people with jobs and schedules that conflicted. So they made the automatic bidding process to allow people to put in their maximum right from the start and it would work it's way up to that by itself.

Bidding at the last second might be necessary for high demand items, but seems like the only people you are outbidding are people who don't properly use the system. People who instead of putting in their maximum willing pay price, will try to step it up a dollar at a time (and end up running out of time). When all the dust clears, it's just about putting in your max willing pay price and hoping for the best.

-David