exactly! put the minimum bid you have to, and early, to prevent the auction from being pulled. then set up a snipe for what you're actually willing to pay. this has become my standard mode of ebay operation!

i used to use another sniping website but i forget what it was called. it was free, but you could only execute I think it was 5 snipes a week or something like that.

Sniping has nothing to do with price - of course you only pay what you're willing to pay - the entire point is timing. Like I said before, putting in your highest offer any more than 8 or 10 seconds before the end of the auction is just asking for someone to outbid you by 25 cents.

I dont even use any programs to snipe anymore because in most cases, I get an alert when something I'm watching is going to be over in 15 minutes on my iphone and then I use it to place the bid myself with 8 or so seconds left - much to my wife's dismay.

with that said I've been bidding on a lot of stuff internationally lately that ends at 4am or so, so I've been looking for a good free sniping program or better yet, a sniping iphone app.

^ AuctionSniper has a mobile site. I use it. You can import auctions via item number or the import wizard. Super easy.

Yep, but its not foolproof. I recently had an auction yanked that I was the high bidder on...it does make it a little more difficult for the seller to yank the auction, but not impossible.

For the most part though it works.

Both eSnipe and AuctionSniper now charge the same fee, which in most cases is 1% of the final auction price. No mention of points. I found this comparison chart on Gixen.com, but don't have experience with this free sniping service.