Very Upset With Myself

[steve B]

Some of sniping is psychological, but there are a few real advantages.

it does limit the degree of shilling possible. Of course a dedicated seller could enter a shill at a fairly high price. Some do it to avoid paying for a reserve.

It also eliminates the "bid big then cancel to find the other bidders max" strategy (which I have never used even though it's possible)

Done manually it allows those of us with poorer organizational skills and/or less budget to make the decision to bid and how much at the last moment.
For example, I may have a few cards in watching, all of which I want and can afford. Say it's 5 T206s that I expect to be about $40 each. But then I see one listed that's maybe a tough back or a really nice one. If I've bid my max on the other 5 I have to continue as if I will win all of them. If I'm waiting to snipe I can pass them by freeing up budget for the more interesting one.
Yes, with a service I could cancel the outstanding snipes, but I'd be likely to forget or get busy with something else and end up with a problem. I've only used credit once for a collectible, and that was a once in a lifetime or two opportunity.

Doing it manually also allows a two tiered snipe. On a very few items I'll place a bid at what I think is full price at about 10 seconds, or as early as a few days before the end. And I have another waiting to use at somewhere under 5 seconds. (This might only be possible with a fast connection like cable) I only do this on stuff I really want, and the crazy bid is only there for those cases where my realistic max might fall slightly short. And it usually means I'm done buying for the month.

The downsides?
The biggest problem with doing it manually is forgetting or missing the end time. But as others have said there's usually another cool item coming up soon.

And you really have to bid your actual maximum which can be a bit of a budget buster if two people place fairly high bids. I've had that go both ways.

Steve B