That "early bid" scenario is still flawed. If you plop down your highest bid early in the game, you are giving competing bidders much more time to act upon it. Why reveal your hand so early? There is absolutely no competitive advantage to doing so. You are just giving the "competition" an increased ability to top you.
Another problem is for those of us with "finite" budgets. If I win something unexpectedly early in the week, I may have less money to spend on the auction in question. No problem... I just reduce (or cancel) the snipe amount. It takes all of 15 seconds. Same holds true if a Catalogue comes in the mail that week.. and the eBay item subsequently loses some of its lustre.
I've changed snipe amounts as many as 6 times per week... and really don't think it's contributed towards killing the hobby!
