I personally think that using secondary "sniping" programs is taking advantage, or rather, exploiting the concept of open bidding on items. I think that ebay should be taking proactive steps in preventing it. In my opinion it does take a lot of the "fun" out of bidding on items, and it is frustrating when you lose an auction in the last few seconds. In a way, it takes the competitivness out of the whole process, which could potentially be harmful to ebay. I like the concept of their "submit best offer" feature, which I have noticed that a lot of sellers are using this, along side of a "buy it now" price and not even offering their auctions up for open bidding. Having a fixed price does cause some disadvantage to buyers who are looking to get something at the lowest price possible, but I feel that it is the only way to maintain true competitivness on ebay, if not, people will begin to take their business elsewhere. However, since ebay basically monopolizes the online auction market (the same way WalMart does in the consumer products market) I doubt they will ever be threatened by the idea of another online auction house taking thier business away. Losing my business would only be a drop in the bucket for them, and they will continue to make their money with, or without my participation. Hooray for capitalism!