Henceforth, I shall use a sniping service

[adolescent]

Like it was said, sniping is not needed if you just put how much you are willing to pay.  If I get outbid by 1 cent, then it's because it's 1 cent over what I'm willing to pay.  

Also, sniping is no guarantee that you'll get the item.  If you wait until <5 seconds to place a bid and it's not high enough then you're an instant loser.  

I did however like Yahoo auctions system that if a bid was put in at the last moment the time would be extended.  But, I never bought anything off that service.  

[adolescent]

@Failure

But that's just it.  Just because you could have gotten it cheaper, doesn't mean you would have.  You put your maximum you would pay.  The other guy simply didn't know how proxy bidding worked.  There's no saying someone wouldn't put the same bid in as a proxy with 15 seconds to go.  Unless you have access to a time machine you'll never know. :-D