I thought I'd "won" a good half dozen times (the screen showing me winning with like 14 secords to go), when suddenly BAM!, I'm outbid. If it wasn't such a damn pain in the ass, it would have been comical, as these sniper bots were not only bidding against the real people, but bidding against each other! On one of my most recent "losses", one bot came in with a high bid with 30 seconds to go, beating me, and then was bid against by the other bot with only 4 seconds left! The second bot beat another guy with a bid that came in with 7 seconds to go, and another "real" bidder got outbid in quick succession by all three bots with bids at 22 seconds to close, 11 seconds to close, and 7 seconds to close! I'm sure these were "bots" because I can't see how a person could be swooping in within 15 seconds of close on multiple auctions whose closing times were only 15-45 seconds apart!
Hey, it's great for the seller, who saw his end price more than double in most cases, but it really sucks for "real" bidders like myself who are sitting up in the middle of the night actually watching the auctions.
Frankly, I don't know what the assholes with the "sniper bots" gain, aside from feeling like "they beat the system", since their "wins" (especially when run up by the other bots) were starting to push the "retail" value of the cards! I rarely will bid on a card unless I'm pretty sure that I'm getting it (including shipping) for 1/3rd of the "retail" value (like most of the things I was bidding on tonight), and I really try to target getting them at about 1/7th of what I could go out and "buy" them for on one of the card sites (which I use alot ot determine "going values"). I guess screwing the other bidders is reward enough to these "bot bidders" that they don't care if they're paying close to retail ... it must be that "beating the other guys" that gives them their "reward". Bleh ... guess no goodies for The Girls tonight.