Oops, on Ebay

[mortaydc60]

Understand you wanting a particular item and think best way is to place snipe bid. It is a tactic, but it has its risks. Here is a great example.This item would usually sell in the say 200-300 range. But to be sure you place your snipe bid at a much higher level to be sure you win. In this case another bidder had the same idea and Oops they over paid by  many hundreds. Was risk reward worth it? In this case No.

[manayunkman]

They probably won’t pay.

[Airborne-Hunter]

Mort raises an excellent point. 

[mshaw]

It’s only risky if you place the snipe far above market value. And that’s not smart because unless a patch is off the chart rare, another one will come along. The best use of the snipe is to make sure you don’t get into a tit-for-tat bidding war over an item during the early phase of the listing. Auction psychology is interesting. I’ve been at many in-person auctions where bidders pay substantially more for something that can be obtained from a dealer at a lower price.  Bidders can see it as some type of sporting contest that has to be won, even if a ridiculous price is paid. I’ve seen bidders pay more for used tools than the price for the exact brand new tool at Home Depot.