That leaves you wide open for shill bidding. Sniping is the only way to go if you don't want to get burned.
But if you started with the absolute highest you would be willing to bid, it's moot and the only difference is you are not allowing yourself the chance to breakdown and spend more in the heat of the moment.
If you started with your absolute highest bid, then by definition you wouldn't be bidding anymore at all :shrug:
But I'll have to disagree in general. If you don't snipe, you may end up paying more than you should have to, not more than you wanted to. If you put in a bid of $100 and the only other bidder is a Shill, instead of paying the $5 opening bid, you'll be paying $99.99. Right there you got screwed for $95. Sniping doesn't allow the shill to chip away at your max bid.