Sniping is sometimes necessary to win highly-sought items.
Hesketh-Prichard tells the story of how a sniping team noted the frequent presence of a well-fed cat on the enemy parapet.
Mordecai, for example, can become an expert on sniping, using Bloodwing (his bird) or become extremely adept in using revolvers.
Also, there are companies that you can sign up with that can do the bidding for you ("sniping programs"), and they will also try to bid at the last minute to try and win the auction.
And all I could do was forget my sniping and just go full blast outside in hopes of stopping them.