the auction would be extended by a further 10-minutes. This would happen repeatedly until the bidding stopped.

I don't care for that strategy -- as a seller or a buyer. If I'm selling, I want the damn thing to be sold, over and done with, not dragged out for hours or days. As a buyer, I don't want to have to stay up all night waiting for the auction to close.

Here's a better way: When an auction is placed, the end-of-auction time will be (for instance) 2:45 pm on whatever the end day is-- plus or minus 15 minutes.

So it might end as early as 2:30, or as late as 3:00, or anyplace in between, and no telling when. So the 'bots would all have to place their bids at 2:29:55, and the snipers who liked to live on the edge would try and guess how far they could push the window before it closed, and the people who really wanted the item would just put their maximum bid in at 2:28 and let it ride.

I think it would work, and would lend some interest and excitement to the auctions as well.

tanstaafl.