Sniping is one of the biggest complaints bidders have about buying on eBay. It's also how David Eccles makes his living. In early 1998, Eccles wrote Cricket Jr., the first-ever commercial software for sniping on eBay. Since then, he has parlayed it into a thriving little business he operates out of his hunting lodge-like home in California's Gold Country, about an hour's drive northeast of Sacramento. Eccles's creation is unquestionably controversial.
Critics call sniping rude, even a form of cheating.
Eccles has sold more than 10,000 copies of his software, and he plans to launch a more powerful version soon. Online auctions may never be quite the same. Eccles, who at 42 is a burly grandfather with a scraggly white beard, is as surprised as anyone at his current line of work. He trapped tropical fish in the Caribbean and sold them to U.S. pet stores. He worked in restaurants, rising from dishwasher to manager of a Sambo's.