When I first started using eBay (more than 10 years ago now), I was bidding on Autocourse annuals. And it was weeks before I actually managed to win anything, because my bids were always trumped in the last few seconds of the auction, whether it be by automated snipers or just people making last gasp bids manually.

This was getting terribly frustrating and eventually I realised that the only way I was going to beat them was to join them, and make my counter-bids in the last moments too. I never really fancied handing over sign-on details to a sniping site so I just bid myself as the auction was almost complete. It's not really my ideal way of going about things but as a bid on eBay doesn't extend the duration, it often devolves down to this last minute frenzy.

Quite nice as a seller, I've seen items quadruple in value in the last minute, but as a buyer I've missed out on some really nice watches this way.

Fortunately, Arno's auction will use traditional bidding, so no eBayesque sudden forest of hands/bidding cards in the last seconds!