I'm more apt to snipe because bidding early does nothing more than drive up the price to beyond what it's actually worth.
For instance, lately, I've been tracking down a lot of older model kits for a project I'm working on. The kits aren't particularly rare, but for some odd reason, very popular. I've been bidding on a 1986 Revell 1/32 Bell X-1. At any given time, there are at least a half dozen on ebay with typical starting prices of about $9 and ending prices between $18 and $22. If people didn't start bidding on day one, they could probably get the kit for the starting price, but the "gotta win it at any cost" attitude forces people to get into bidding wars.
I finally found one that started at $5 and bid with a minute left. I put in a max bid of $12.50, just to cover myself and lo and behold, it ended up closing at $7. Somebody tried to snipe me with a few seconds left and assumed I only bid the absolute minimum.
Sniping is the only way to go on ebay, even if you're the only bidder on the item - especially if the seller uses a shill bidder to drive up the prices.
-Fred