One idea being bandied about - in a "real" auction, there is no time limit, within reason. If bidding is active, then an auctioneer would be silly to stop bidding at a predetermined time. So, it has been suggested that as long as a flurry of bids is coming in - then the auction should be extended by a few minutes, and hour, whatever. "Sniping" takes advantage of the fact that an eBay auction ends at a specific hour, minute and second. I have won a few auctions within 1 or 2 seconds of the ending time. It just has to really crank the poor guy who was #2, but Oh well.
A true auction site out there that does that is bidz.com. Unfortunately they don't sell everything, mostly jewelry. Most items have very few bids until it is almost over but if a bid is made in the last 15 seconds the auction is extended for 15 seconds, over and over til there are no more bids.
That is a true auction to me.
I've been the #2 guy quite often. It does piss me off!