Example: someone bids $21.00 for an item, with seven seconds remaining in the auction. My snipe is $21.15, to be placed six seconds before the end. My bid will not be accepted, since the bid increment is $.50.

My idea: have an option for each auction that will automatically increase the snipe amount by $.50 or $1.00, if the first amount is too low and is not accepted as a valid bid.

There may be some legal or Ebay policy implications for this, but it seems like it would be a useful and successful feature.

If you wish to pay $21.15 as your maximum, then this is your maximum.
If you agree to increase your max to $22.15 instead, then you should've put $22.15 in the first place, not $21.15.

When you bid, you have to put your absolute maximum. If you win -- you get a great deal. If you lost -- someone else is paying too much.

My own recommendation is to add about 5-10% on the top of your max to cover bid increments and things like "man, I should've bid a little higher!"

I agree with the Guest, I think you missed the point. I place a bid that is higher than the other bidder but I still lose. This is not fair. I believe there should be a safety net set up. My “ABSOLENT highest” bid (above Example) is 21.15 and the other bidder highest bid is 21.00 so technical I am the highest bidder and I should win. Just because ebay made rules of having to bid a minimum of .50 cents more to be advantageous to them does not mean they are fair. You have to remember that I usually don’t see what happens in the last 6 secounds that is why I use MyIbay. If I was there I would definitely raise the .35 cents to fulfill ebays rules. I’m only saying that myIbay should compensate for ebay’s rules. I think many people would use this option.

Rezzen,
There is no need to bring up different topics about the same thing.
If your absolute maximum is 21.15 and the current bid is 21.00, the next acceptable bid is 22.00 which is lower than your absolute maximum.
Now ask yourself: are you willing to pay 22.00 instead of 21.15? If you are, then your absolute maximum is 22.00 and not 21.15. In this case you should put 22.00 as your absolute maximum.
Unfortunately, the sniper can't guess if you are willing to pay 22.00 or that will be too much for you.

When you set 21.15, ask yourself: are you willing to pay 22.00? What about 23.00? 23.50? 24.00? Then whenever your answer is "no, that's too much already", then you found your absolute maximum.

Sorry about the new topic. Your quick responses are amazing, thank you.
I know you keep telling me that I should bid higher. I get that. If I want to bid really high than I can just use the ebay bidder. All I’m saying is Not to have a lower bidder win over myself being a higher bidder. You’re telling me to bid high, I’m telling you it would be just as easy to make the program check to see If I’m a higher bidder over the lower bidder and winning. Not sure why this would be difficult.You can just add a box to check off if you want this protection, easy. I see many bidders have the same problem and you keep responding to the same question “Why did I lose my bid if I was a higher bidder?”. This feature would eliminate these questions and your headaches. (Ex) I snipe at $21.00 and the other bidder bids $20.01. The latter (20.01) wins because of ebay rules. Why not fix this. If I knew someone would bid within a penny I would bid that penny higher or more. This is not about the absolute maximum this is about a lower bidder winning. I would like to make the program make sure that the lower bidder never wins, period. The way it should be. No guessing involved.

The relation with bidding on eBay directly is not correct here.
Sniping is not for bidding high. Sniping is for avoiding other bidders to react on your bids (whatever you reasons are -- protect from shill bidding, hide your interest, etc).

So you are suggesting me to do the following:
If you set your snipe to be $21 and "check the box", then internally I would snipe $22 instead?
Why can't you set your snipe to be $22 in the first place?
If you were agree to pay up to $22, then why did you set $21 as your absolute maximum?
Maybe you don't want to pay that much.. Unfortunately, I don't know.

You are not the highest bidder here. You must be the higher than the current bid plus one increment. Just being a little higher without bid increment is not enough, it does not make you high bidder.

The only way to fix it is to add 1-2 bid increments over your absolute maximum. You can do it without "checking the box".
Please think it over. I see your point, but I'm suggesting you a much easier way to approach it.