Denny, I am assuming you are talking about losing a bid on eBay. I have been using this site for bidding for over 10 years.
http://www.esnipe.com/It keeps me out of bidding wars and then places a bid 6 seconds before the end of the bidding which doesn't give other bidders time to bid against me. If it is an item that I really want, I usually bid the opening bid to keep the seller from removing the item. My esnipe bid then bids the maximum I am willing to pay 6 seconds before the end.
