If eBay prevents sniping, I would just about quit bidding on items. The only items I would buy through eBay would be "Buy It Now" listings.

Since I started using a sniper, I have been winning a much higher percentage of auctions that I bid on. If I don't win, the price was higher than I was willing to pay. I always place my bid through a sniper for the most I would be willing to pay or what the item is worth to me. Often I end up winning auctions for much less than my maximum bid could have been.

Before I started using a sniper, I was routinely getting outbid on auctions at the very last second. I had just about quit bidding on items because I always lost. This was particularly true for auctions that ended at times when I was unable to watch the auction and bid near the end. If eBay started banning snipers, it seems to me that it would ultimately hurt their business and bottom line. I for one would substantially cut back my shopping on eBay.

The advantage of a sniper is that you can set it to submit your bid near the end of an auction, such as 5 seconds before the end. That greatly increases you odds of winning. If you submit a bid 2, 3, 4 days before the end of an auction, in most cases someone will come along and top your bid -- unless it is ridiculously high. My winning percentage on auctions probably increased from 5% to 50-75% after I started using a sniper.

Yes. I can also make a list of items, each with its own price I'm willing to pay, and a quantity I need, and the snipe program will work through the list and bid on the items until I've won the number of items specified. E.g. if I'm looking for a saddle, and I find three listings I'm interested in bidding on, I create a simple file with the item numbers and prices I'm willing to pay, and feed it to my snipe program:

quantity=1
251243445560 15.99
160986626444 21.50
111026073739 25.50

The program works through the list, submits my bids as the auctions get close to ending, and exits once I've won one of the saddles.

I think ebay would prefer a buy it now model.
We will see what transpires, after ebay/paypal split. The true situation for day will surface, revenues would really be declining if not for the higher fees, and final value fee add on for shipping…
Ebay really wants to compete with Amazon.

Probably true, and in light of this verification issue, I will be more inclined to list items that way, at least items of any real financial consequence.

As much as I don't like winning an item because my bid was blocked, I would feel worse wondering if bids were blocked on an item I sold. And I would be pretty hot if a would-be buyer contacted me to let me know his/her bid was blocked. I wonder what the corporate response would be under that scenario.

I have bought hundreds of things via. Ebay auctions. Almost everthing cycling related has been through Ebay.

I rarely make a bid prior to a minute before auction close. I almost always swoop in with 5 seconds left. Why would I want to want to compete against clueless low-feedback bidders, or tit-for-tat revenge bidders, or worst: shill bidders? There is no point to making an advance proxy bid.

If I were to put in a proxy bid on a big ticket item, there is nothing to prevent some shill from picking away with $1 increment bids until my high bid was disclosed. So I've won the auction, but been forced to pay the absolute highest amount I was prepared to pay. Every time; no deals.

If Ebay were to change the rules such that the end time of an auction was no longer fixed, there would be far more shill bid activity, and I would stop using Ebay.