[the 'stache]

I pretty much do the sniping thing myself now. It's just not worth obligating yourself to an auction (potentially freezing large amounts of cash if it's a high dollar item) when you might not even get the card you're bidding on. Example: I found a really nice 2011 Bowman Chrome Bryce Harper base auto on the Bay night before last, auction format. A beautiful, gradable card. Perfectly centered with a clean surface, and sharp edges and corners. I knew how high the auction could reach, as that's one of the hottest cards in the hobby right now, and cards graded by Beckett with a 9.5 overall rating and 10 auto command a premium. Well, I sent the owner a preemptive offer to buy the card. They smartly declined. With nearly 5 full days left, the auction is up to $252.49, and it will eventually pass my $350 offer.

Luckily, I found a seller in Canada with a Beckett graded one, 9.5/10 with all 9.5 subs, and I was able to get it at a great price (and not much higher than my bid to the other seller). If I had put a bid in of $350, or $375 on the first auction, those funds would have basically been frozen until the auction's end, and I couldn't have bought the graded version (unless I wanted potentially both a raw and a graded card). And I didn't feel like blowing $800 on two of the same cards.