Snipe Time & Bid Increment

[Brian50]

I am brand new to sniping, my first try was yesterday; Gixen was recommended by a frequent user (who says he succeeds 95% of the time).
I think I understand the argument for a 6 (or second snipe time regarding not being caught out by eBay's bid increment requirement, but I wonder if the item value has any impact on that reasoning. I was outsniped last evening; here's what I think I saw:
For the last several minutes, the high bid was $265.00. My Gixen snipe showed on eBay's item page at about 3 sec., at my highest price - $282.06.
My snipe was immediately(!) followed by another snipe $5 higher (the bid increment) and won.
Questions: 1. Why did my snipe go in at $17 over the standing bid if the bid increment was $5?
2. How did my competing sniper manage to read my snipe so quickly and respond with a snipe exactly one bid increment over mine?
3. If my initial snipe amount was less than my maximum amount, would or could Gixen re-snipe within those last couple of seconds to top the other sniper?
4. Perhaps most importantly, is the bid increment less important for items of "higher value", where the value may be harder to pinpoint?
The items I am most likely to bid on are antiques, and I suspect that bidders' maximum bids are likely to have a significant range. It seems as though it might be more important to give another sniper no time to respond, even if he was willing to outbid me.
As I said, I am brand new to sniping and I may be missing the boat with my logic. Experience almost always beats theory, so I thank you in advance for any enlightenment!

[mario]

Brian50, the winning bidder already had a higher bid submitted with ebay, only his maximum bid was not shown, only the amount needed to win, which was second highest bid + bid increment. This is ebay's proxy bidding system. Since ebay knows his / her maximum bid, and knew it was higher than yours when Gixen submitted your maximum bid, it jumped straight to your maximum bid + bid increment.

Note that it's not Gixen that bids incrementally, it's eBay. Gixen submits your maximum bid the same way you would, only in the last seconds before auction end.

[Brian50]

Mario, clearly I did not understand eBay's and Gixen's processes. What I understand now is that ebay will "raise" my Gixen-submitted maximum bid by one increment even if Gixen submits at the 3 second mark. In other words, if another bidder has a higher max registered with ebay, he will always win whether I use Gixen or bid directly. (I understand that Gixen offers other advantages.) Thanks.

[mario]

Brian50, that's correct. Sniping protects you from other users changing their mind and increasing their bid after you submit yours. It will not help against higher bids that are submitted ahead of time. Nothing will.

[Gixen]

[Brian50]

I guess this is a follow up to my previous question. Here's my hypothetical situation:

My max. bid is submitted to eBay by Gixen. Another bidder has his/her max. bid on the same item submitted to eBay by another sniper service. Both go in at about 6 seconds before the end of auction.

How does eBay's proxy bidding system handle that?

Thanks, Brian50

[Cupid]

Further suppose that the two bids are of exactly the same amount... computers tell time differences far more accurately than just by seconds... the earlier bid will be taken by Ebay as the winning one, even though they may be reported as having been made in the same second.

If the bids are of different amounts the higher bid wins, with the price they have to pay being at most one bid increment more than the next highest bid.
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Mark