Do they send out email alerts to the bidding parties in the last few minutes, hoping to cause a flurry of activity? I remember reading something about how they have that practice built in, and it has caused problems.

Back when Amazon had some decent books in their auction and the people who listed them had a clue as to how to actually list their books, I was topped several times before realizing I had to hover nearby and not bid until the end, and hope that no one else was paying attention. Then they started the practice of sending a post to everyone else if someone posted a bid in the last 10 minutes AND they extended the bidding for another 10 minutes. It's patently unfair to the bidders to keep extending things to try to raise the price if there was initially a set time. If you're not paying attention, you lose. That's what I figured out. Then they changed the rules.

SRS