I don't enter my max bid days ahead of time since 
whenever I do that, some ding-dong comes along 
and walks up the bid by no more than one full 
increment per bid. And they *do* get the high bid 
on the item by only one increment. (Assuming they 
don't give up.)

Seriously! It never fails - I always review the 
bid history on an item before I bid, and if I see 
one large bid by PersonA, then a billion tiny 
bids by PersonB (who is the current high bidder), 
I am almost *assured* that PersonB only has the 
high bid by a single bid increment, and any bid I 
put in will outbid them. It's as though they 
don't realize Ebay's computer will proxy bid for 
them.

And bid walkers can cost you a lot of money, so 
it's best to snipe and not risk them. I remember 
a cel I was bidding on - I slipped and put in my 
max bid 70 seconds before the end instead of 15 
seconds, which is where I aim to bid. The bid 
walker (who had the high bid before mine) was 
right there (as per usual) and they didn't get 
the cel, but *did* walk up my bid by a total of 
$50, one bid increment at a time. ~_~ And that's 
just in 70 seconds! But like usual, when I had 
initially outbid them, they were only holding the 
high bid by a single bid increment.

So when bid walkers win, usually *do* win by only 
a dollar. It's the nature of their bidding.

Many Sharp Smiles,
--Drac