Originally Posted by
JohnDThompson
Yes,
as noted: "Most eBay bids are proxy bids. If everybody understood that, figured out how much they wanted to pay, and bid their maximum, sniping would not be useful. However, many bidders have no idea how much they want to pay, so they bid in small increments until they beat your proxy. If you bid your maximum at the end of the auction, you greatly reduce the chances of being bid up by such a bidder."
The notion that, "someone else is willing to pay that so it must be worth at least that amount".
This appears to be a strong notion, also appears to function when there is a small incremental bid and two or more have at it to be top dog, even days away from the auction end.
Ego is a powerful force.